Russia today blacklisted 200 US citizens, including the brothers of US President Joe Biden and White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
The expansion of the blacklist is in response to the personal sanctions adopted by Washington against Russian officials, businessmen and cultural figures, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Among those sanctioned is the US president’s sister, Valeri, and her younger brothers, Francis and James.
Also included in the list are the Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland; the Secretary of Health, Xavier Becerra, and those of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, and Education, Miguel Cardona.
In addition, the list also includes senior officials, parliamentarians and their close relatives, and directors of companies in the defense sector, experts and figures involved in lobbying.
Also noteworthy is the presence of the journalist and writer Anne Applebaum, who received the Pulitzer Prize (2004) for her book on the Soviet GULAG and who also published another on the famine in Ukraine caused by the forced collectivization of the land ordered by Stalin. .
Moscow accuses all those sanctioned of participating in a campaign of Russophobia and of supporting what it calls the “kyiv regime”, alluding to the government of Ukrainian President Volodímir Zelenski.
The Russian Foreign Ministry sanctioned Biden and almost a thousand US citizens last May in response to the sanctions adopted by Washington for the Russian military campaign in Ukraine.
In September, it expanded its blacklist of US citizens whose entry to the country will be prohibited with the inclusion of actors Sean Penn and Ben Stiller, in addition to 23 other Americans, including several secretaries, undersecretaries and businessmen.