On Tuesday, Russia announced personal sanctions against U.S. President Joe Biden, and 12 other Americans, including his son Hunter Biden
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the new Russian sanctions are in retaliation to the sanctions the U.S. imposed against Russia for its military invasion of Ukraine.
Beyond President Biden and his son, the list of sanctioned Americans includes Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, CIA Director William Burns, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Duleep Singh, Director of the Agency for International Development Samantha Powers, First Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Adewale Adeyemo and President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank Reta Joe Lewis.
It was not immediately clear how the Russian sanctions are intended to work and how effective the sanctions would actually be.
The U.S., along with several other nations, have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia in the nearly three weeks since the invasion began. The U.S. even took the rare move of imposing sanctions directly targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Last week, the Biden administration also banned the import of Russian oil and gas within the U.S.
“This step, taken as a counter reaction, was an inevitable consequence of the extremely Russophobic course taken by the current U.S. Administration, which, in a desperate attempt to maintain American hegemony, has relied, discarding all decency, on the frontal containment of Russia,” Russia’s foreign ministry said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also said it would look to expand the list of sanctioned Americans in the near future “by including top U.S. officials, military officials, lawmakers, businessmen, experts and media people who are Russophobic or contribute to inciting hatred towards Russia and the introduction of restrictive measures.”
While imposing the sanctions on Tuesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said, “At the same time, we do not refuse to maintain official relations if they meet our national interests.”
The Russian agency said it would still negotiate with the sanctioned U.S. individuals and would resolve any obstacles in negotiating with those individuals that may arise from the sanctions.
Last week, Axios reported that since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it has become the most sanctioned country in the world, surpassing Iran.