Russia puts Jill Biden and daughter Ashley on their 'stop list'

2022-06-28

Russia puts Joe Biden’s wife Jill and daughter Ashley on their ‘stop-list’ alongside 23 other prominent Americans including Mitch McConnell in expanded sanctions tally

Russia placed the U.S. President, the First Lady and their daughter on a ‘stop-list’
Foreign ministry compiled a list of people promoting a ‘Russophobic’ agenda
The individuals and entities added to the list are banned indefinitely from Russia
Comes as a retaliation to sanctions aimed at Russia amid the invasion of Ukraine
BREAKING: More to follow

Russia on Tuesday expanded its U.S. ‘stop-list’, including in it the wife and daughter of President Joe Biden as well as other prominent figures.

The Russian foreign ministry in recent months has compiled a list of foreign individuals and entities it believes have promoted a ‘Russophobic’ agenda.

Those who are added to the list are banned indefinitely from entering the country.

Biden and his family joined a host of US senators on the list, including Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Charles Grassley of Iowa, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

The blacklist also included several university professors and researchers and former US government officials.

The step was taken ‘as a response to the ever-expanding U.S. sanctions against Russian political and public figures,’ the ministry said in a statement.

It comes just one day after the U.S. announced a raft of yet more sanctions aimed at crippling the Russian war effort by limiting Russia’s access to technology, global markets and trade, while freezing the assets of elites involved in Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Russia has placed U.S. President Joe Biden, his daughter Ashley (left) and wife Jill (right) on a stop-list

The Russian foreign ministry in recent months has compiled a list of foreign individuals and entities it believes have promoted a ‘Russophobic’ agenda (Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov pictured)

Zelensky spoke yesterday to G7 leaders, including Joe Biden, asking them for urgent help to end the war before the bitterly cold winter months. The U.S. has since announced a raft of new sanctions on Russian individuals and businesses

Washington yesterday said the G7 group of rich nations, whose leaders met in Germany this week, would issue a statement of support for Ukraine, including new sanctions commitments.

The Biden administration confirmed its intention to implement sanctions on hundreds of individuals and entities, target companies in several countries and impose tariffs on hundreds of Russian products.

The U.S. already has sanctions in place against more than 1,000 Russian elites and businesses seen as complicit in the atrocities being carried out by Putin’s troops in Ukraine.

It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the G7 leaders yesterday morning, imploring them to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.

Such a move would have widespread impact, allowing the U.S. to sanction dozens of countries that do business with Moscow and freeze Russian assets in America.

But even at the height of the Cold War, successive administrations considered an official designation of state-sponsored terrorism to be a step too far.

The announcement of fresh U.S. sanctions on Russia came hours before Russian missiles targeted a packed shopping centre in the city of Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, killing at least 18 people.

An estimated 1,000 people were inside the retail destination when it was hit by what Kyiv says was two Russian AS-4 guided missiles – Soviet-era weapons originally designed to take out U.S. aircraft carriers.

At least 60 people were wounded in the attack including 25 who are in hospital, though there are hundreds still unaccounted for.

The strike sparked an inferno which gutted the building and caused most of the roof to collapse, with firefighters working through the night to extinguish the blaze.

Those who are yet to be found are thought to have perished in the inferno.

Onlookers gather as the shopping centre is engulfed by flames shortly after it was struck by two Russian guided missiles on Monday, while an estimated 1,000 people were inside

Smoke rises from the ruins of the Amstor shopping mall in the city of Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, after it was struck by long-range guided missiles that Ukraine says were fired by Russian bombers

A couple wounded in a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike hold hands in a hospital, amid expectation that the number of people killed will continue to rise

The G7 leaders branded the rocket attacks ‘a war crime’, and vowed that Putin and those responsible would be held to account.

‘Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime,’ they said in a statement condemning the ‘abominable attack.’

Zelensky meanwhile called it ‘one of the most brazen terrorist acts in European history’ in his evening broadcast posted on Telegram.

‘A peaceful town, an ordinary shopping centre – women, children ordinary civilians inside,’ said Zelensky, who earlier shared a video of the mall engulfed in flames with dozens of rescuers and a fire truck outside.

In a separate attack Monday, Russian rockets killed at least eight civilians as they were out collecting water in the eastern city of Lysychansk, said Luhansk region governor Serhiy Haidai.

Other strikes in Kyiv and Kharkiv in recent days have also resulted in several deaths.

New U.S. sanctions on Russia

MILITARY PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY CHAINS

The United States will target Russian defence supply chains by imposing blocking sanctions on major state-owned defence enterprises and defence-related entities and individuals.

G7 Leaders will align and expand sanctions to further restrict Russia’s access to key industrial inputs, services and technologies, particularly those supporting its armaments industrial base and technology sector.

TARIFFS

The United States will implement a higher tariff rate on more than 570 groups of Russian products worth approximately $2.3 billion to Russia.

Biden and other G7 leaders will seek authority to use revenues collected by new tariffs on Russian goods to help Ukraine.

GLOBAL MARKET AND GOLD

The United States will issue a determination to prohibit the import of new Russian gold into the United States, which will prevent Russian participation in the formal gold market. The G7 leaders will also commit to continue to target efforts by those engaging in sanctions evasion.

The U.S. Department of Commerce will also take its first action against companies engaging in ‘backfill’ activities to help Russia get around Western sanctions by adding several companies around the world to its entity list. This will prohibit those companies from purchasing U.S-made goods and technologies, such as semiconductors.

Washington will implement blocking sanctions against people involved in assisting Russia to evade sanctions and alert financial institutions to aid in detecting potential violations of export controls.

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

G7 leaders will decide to impose sanctions on those deemed responsible for human rights abuses.

The United States will implement blocking sanctions on private military companies operating in Ukraine, Russian military units implicated in human rights abuses, Russian-installed senior officials in areas besieged or held by Russia’s forces. Visa restrictions will target approximately 500 officials for violating Ukraine’s sovereignty or suppressing dissent in Russia.

BUDGETARY SUPPORT

The G7 will commit to help Ukraine cover its short-term budgetary funding shortfalls, including a $7.5 billion commitment from the United States. Leaders will also make a long-term security commitment to providing Ukraine with financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support for as long as it takes

Source: Reuters

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