Russia says it is barring Vice President Kamala Harris, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, White House chief of staff Ron Klain, and 28 other Americans from entering the country in response to "anti-Russian sanctions" issued by the United States as a result of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
"In response to the ever-expanding anti-Russian sanctions, under which the Biden Administration brings an increasing number of Russian citizens – both officials and their families, as well as representatives of business circles, scientists and cultural figures – 29 Americans are included in the 'stop list' from among the top leaders, businessmen, experts and journalists who form the Russo-phobic agenda, as well as the spouse of a number of high-ranking officials," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Included in the list are Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, State Department spokesman Ned Price, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Evan Maureen Ryan, the White House Cabinet secretary and wife of Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Price called the move "nothing less than an accolade to earn the ire" of the Russian government.
"In addition to the Vice President, today's tranche included journalists and spokespeople for this administration, myself included," Price said, according to CNN.
"I have to say it is nothing less than an accolade to earn the ire of a government that lies to its own people, brutalizes its neighbors and seeks to create a world where freedom and liberty are put on the run and, if they had their way, extinguished."
It is "a great honor to share that enmity with other truth tellers, my colleagues John Kirby and Jen Psaki, as well as a number of journalists who have done incredible work, sharing the jarring, bloody truth of Russia's actions in Ukraine," he added.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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