Five hundred high-ranking U.S. officials, including former President Barack Obama, are banned from entering Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Friday, May 19th.
According to the ministry, the entry ban is a response to the new “anti-Russian” sanctions, “designed by Washington to inflict maximum damage on Russia,” which the Biden administration had announced on the first day of the G7 summit in Japan. Remarkably, American television hosts and comedians Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers were also on the list.
“It is high time Washington learned that Russia will not just sit by and watch as it unleashes its hostile campaigns against Russia,” the Russian Foreign Ministry added, warning that “retribution will never be far away.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry also rejected a recent U.S. request for a consular visit to the detained reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested on suspicion of espionage in late March. The decision was made “in response to the refusal to issue visas to Russian journalists” who were due to accompany Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the UN’s New York headquarters, it added.
On Friday, Russia also opened a criminal case against International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan and judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala, and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez, who in March had issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) case brought against Putin alleges that the Russian leader, together with Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, is guilty of war crimes, more specifically, the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia. Moscow has denied these allegations.
According to the Russian Investigative Committee, its own case was opened on charges of the “criminal prosecution” of an “innocent person” [Putin], as it deems the charges brought against the Russian leader to be “illegal.” The ICC has no powers to arrest suspects and has jurisdiction only within its member countries, which do not include Russia. Its effect is considered minimal, as it would only limit Putin’s travel options.
In addition, the Russian branch of the environmental group Greenpeace has been effectively forced into ceasing operations after Russian authorities declared it an “undesirable organization,” making its continued existence practically impossible. According to Russia, Greenpeace had tried to “interfere in the internal affairs of the state” and was “engaged in anti-Russian propaganda” by calling for sanctions against Moscow.
