Russia has announced sanctions against United States president Joe Biden and other top White House officials.
As reported by The Hill, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the sanctions in a Facebook post shared on Tuesday.
The post started by stating: "Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia on personal sanctions regarding representatives of the US leadership and associated persons."
It went on to add that "in response to a series of unprecedented sanctions banning, among other things, entry into the United States for top officials of the Russian Federation," that a number of senior US officials would be placed on the "Russian 'stop-list' on the basis of mutual reciprocity."
The Russian Foreign Ministry adds: "This step, taken in the order of backlash, became an inevitable consequence of the extreme Russophobic course taken by the current US Administration, which in a desperate attempt to preserve American hegemony, made a bet, throwing away all decency...and Russia's frontal restraint."
As well as US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House press secretary Jen Psaki were also named.
Rather oddly, seeing as she is currently out of office, Hillary Clinton was also added to the list, which has also been published to the official website for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Other names included Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency William Burns, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
The post added: "New announcements will soon follow on the expansion of the sanctions list to include top American officials, military, lawmakers, businessmen, experts and media persons, Russophobic or cooperative arsonists June hatred towards Russia and the introduction of restrictive measures."
The decision comes as countries around the world have announced sanctions against Russia, such as the United States banning all Russian oil and gas imports, BBC News reports.
On Tuesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergeĭ Lavrov announced at a press briefing: "We will make sure that we never again find ourselves that neither some Uncle Sam nor anybody else can make decisions aimed at destroying our economy.
"We will find a way to eliminate this dependence."
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