MOSCOW (AP):

In response to a brand new spherical of US sanctions, Russia introduced Friday that it was banning 500 Americans from getting into the nation, together with former President Barack Obama and comic Stephen Colbert.

The listing launched by the Foreign Ministry didn’t specify complaints towards every particular person. But the ministry mentioned the offences included spreading Russophobia, supplying Ukraine with arms, and officers “who are directly involved in the persecution of dissidents in the wake of the so-called ‘storm of the Capitol.”.

The ban consists of 45 members of the US House, Sens. J.D. Vance, Katie Britt and Eric Schmitt, and former ambassadors to Russia John Tefft and Jon Huntsman.

The ministry mentioned it had additionally denied a US request for consular entry to Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in late March and charged with espionage. The ministry mentioned that was in response to the United States denying visas to Russian journalists who wished to cowl Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s go to to the United Nations final month.

The newest sanctions geared toward Russia embrace tighter restrictions on already-sanctioned folks and corporations concerned within the battle effort. The monetary penalties have been primarily centered on sanctions evaders related to expertise procurement for the Kremlin.