The Kremlin added 500 names to its list of sanctioned Americans on Friday, including several people who are enemies of former President Donald Trump but seemingly have no overt connection to the war in Ukraine or Russian policy.
Russia first placed sanctions in the form of travel and financial restrictions on 963 Americans last summer after the United States placed its own sanctions on Russian officials as punishment for the war Russian President Vladimir Putin launched against Ukraine in February 2022.
Other Americans were named as personae non grata since that time by Moscow, but some Republican politicians who have criticized the Biden administration's support for Ukraine avoided punishment.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' new expanded list does include some notable Republicans, including Senators Katie Britt of Alabama and J.D. Vance of Ohio, as well as Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. But the list was also notable for punishing high-profile adversaries of Trump.
"In response to the staple anti-Russian sanctions by the Joe Biden administration, which are designed by Washington to inflict maximum damage on Russia, personally affecting officials and ordinary citizens of our country, 500 Americans are denied entry to the Russian Federation as a countermeasure," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement about the new sanctions.
However, some of the figures on the list have clashed with Trump, who has avoided criticizing Putin for the war in Ukraine and has complimented the Russian leader on multiple occasions.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has investigated and sued Trump for alleged fraud, and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who reportedly ignored pressure from Trump to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, were placed on the list.
Also sanctioned was Jack Smith, the Justice Department special counsel overseeing the investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and Trump's handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
Another person singled out by the Kremlin was Lieutenant Michael Byrd, the U.S. Capitol Police Officer who shot pro-Trump rioter Ashli Babbitt during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Although Byrd has no public connection to Russia, he was called a "thug" by Trump, who pushed unsuccessfully for the officer to be charged in Babbitt's death.
Other prominent figures on the new list from Russia include former President Barack Obama and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, as well as late-night television hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Myers.
"Needless to say, nobody from Fox News or the extreme right is being sanctioned," Swedish economist Anders Åslund wrote in the Kyiv Post.
"Russia's Foreign Ministry has now told us all we need to know," Åslund added. "It dislikes all people who know anything about Russia, if they are not fully committed to Putin. Moreover, it has no qualms about engaging openly in US domestic politics."
George Ajjan, an international political strategist, downplayed the actual effects of the sanctions.
"Discussion of this type of irrelevant sanctions amounts to little more than inside baseball for political nerds," Ajjan told Newsweek. "Academics like Åslund take delight in dropping the sanctioned names of obscure think-tankers and former diplomats as if they were A-list movie stars banned from the red carpet, but in reality, the domestic political impact of Putin's latest move is zero."
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jon Jackson is an Associate Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more
