Foreign Ministry statement concerning personal sanctions on US senior officials and affiliated persons

In response to a series of unprecedented sanctions that prohibit, among other things, entry to the United States for top officials of the Russian Federation, starting March 15, the Russian stop list includes, on the basis of reciprocity, President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, as well as several agency heads and other prominent US figures.

This step, taken as a response measure, is the inevitable result of the extreme Russophobic policy of the current US Administration, which, in a desperate attempt to maintain American hegemony, has abandoned any sense of decorum and placed its bets on the head-on containment of Russia.

However, we do not oppose maintaining official ties when it is in our national interests, and, if necessary, we will address the issues arising from the status of the black-listed individuals in order to organise high-level contacts.

The list of US citizens included in the stop list is as follows:

1. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.;

2. Antony John Blinken;

3. Lloyd James Austin III;

4. Mark Alexander Milley;

5. Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan, National Security Advisor;

6. William Joseph Burns, Director of the CIA;

7. Jennifer Rene Psaki, White House Press Secretary;

8. Daleep Singh, Deputy National Security Advisor;

9. Samantha Jane Power, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development;

10. Robert Hunter Biden, son of the US President;

11. Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, former US presidential candidate;

12. Adewale Adeyemo, US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury;

13. Reta Jo Lewis, President and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

More announcements will be made soon concerning the expansion of the sanctions list to include other top US officials, military leaders, lawmakers, business executives, experts and media personalities who promote Russophobia or contribute to inciting hatred of Russia or imposing restrictive measures.

These actions will be taken in harmony with the major decisions of the Government of the Russian Federation in finance, banking and other areas to protect the Russian economy and ensure its stable development.