Russia has released a list of 1,000 US citizens permanently banned from entering the country – including Morgan Freeman, Mark Zuckerberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Russia’s foreign ministry released the list of those no longer permitted to travel to the country on Saturday (21 May), predominantly due to their support of so-called “anti-Russian sanctions” imposed by the US government.
Among the list are US president Joe Biden, vice president Kamala Harris, several journalists, lawmakers and actors including Freeman and filmmaker Rob Reiner.
“In the context of response to the constantly imposed anti-Russian sanctions by the United States and in connection with incoming requests about the personal composition of our national ‘stop list’, the Russian Foreign Ministry publishes a list of American citizens who are permanently banned from entering the Russian Federation,” the ministry said in a news release.
The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. (FedotovAnatoly/Getty Images)
Freeman’s inclusion on the list reportedly stems from a recorded video message “accusing Russia of conspiring against the United States”. The message was a PSA that he narrated to create awareness of Moscow’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
“We have been attacked,” Freeman said in the video. “We are at war. Imagine this movie script: a former KGB spy, angry at the collapse of his motherland, plots a course for revenge. Taking advantage of the chaos, he works his way up through the ranks of a post-Soviet Russia and becomes the president.”
Other names on the “stop list” include US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, Texas senator Ted Cruz, ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, and many more government officials.
It also includes a plethora of people from “all walks of life” according to The Washington Post, including LGBTQ+ activists, rabbis and a Yale University professor.
The ministry added that it was “open to honest, mutually respectful dialogue, separating the American people who are always respected by us”. They also accused US authorities of inciting “Russophobia.”
Kremlin officials said: “We emphasise that the hostile actions taken by Washington, which boomerang against the United States itself, will continue to receive a proper rebuff.
“Russian counter-sanctions are forced and aimed at forcing the ruling American regime… to change its behaviour, recognising new geopolitical realities.”
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