The White House mocked the Kremlin on Tuesday, saying it had bungled the imposition of sanctions on President Joe Biden and that they would make no difference to U.S. officials who didn’t have Russian bank accounts anyway.
It came after Moscow slapped penalties on a string of senior officials – as well as the president’s troubled son Hunter Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they were being added to a ‘stop list’ in retaliation for the growing economic blockade on its economy.
But White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who also made the list, laughed them off.
‘I would first note that President Biden is a “junior” so they may have sanctioned his dad, may he rest in peace,’ she said during her regular daily briefing.
‘The second piece I would say is … that none of us are planning tourist trips to Russia and none of us have bank accounts that we won’t be able to access, so we will forge ahead.’
Clinton also saw the funny side.
‘I want to thank the Russian Academy for this Lifetime Achievement Award,’ she said in a tweet.
They delivered their comments during a day of diplomatic strikes.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov slapped sanctions on Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, CIA director Bill Burns and a string of senior U.S. officials as President Vladimir Putin hit back at the growing economic blockade on his regime.
Just as the Russian announcement was released, Washington was unveiling fresh sanctions on President Alexander Lukashenko, Moscow’s ally in Belarus, and 11 key Russian defense officials.
The Russian move effectively bars Biden and 12 other U.S. figures – including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, C.I.A. director Bill Burns – from entering Russia.
Daleep Singh, an economist on the National Security Council who is seen as the architect of sanctions on Russia, also makes the list.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki mocked Russian attempts to sanction President Joe Biden, claiming Moscow may have accidentally sanctioned his late father
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is pictured with his father Joseph Robinette Biden
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced sanctions on 13 U.S. figures – from President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden
The sanctions mean Biden and Blinken are barred from entering Russia, but Moscow said official relations with Washington – and contacts with key officials – would continue
As well as the architects of Biden’s Russia sanctions, Moscow also sanctioned Hunter Biden and Hillary Clinton – suggesting the Kremlin is making mischief with its list
Hillary Clinton had a cheeky response to news that she had been sanctioned by Moscow
The 13 Americans placed on Moscow’s ‘stop list’ include architects of the U.S. blockade of Russia
The people sanctioned by Moscow range from key players in President Joe Biden’s foreign policy team and his advisers on economic sanctions to high-profile messengers – and a mischievous dig at the president’s own family
Joe Biden – president
Antony Blinken – secretary of state
Lloyd Austin – secretary of defense
Mark Milley – chairman of the joint chiefs of staff
Jake Sullivan – national security adviser
Bill Burns – CIA director
Jen Psaki – White House press secretary
Jen Psaki is one of the officials placed on a ‘stop list’ by Moscow
Daleep Singh – deputy national security advisor for international economics
Samantha Power – USAID administrator
Hunter Biden – President Biden’s son
Hillary Clinton – former secretary of state
Wally Adeyemo -deputy secretary of the Treasury
Reta Jo Lewis – president of the Export-Import Bank of the US
In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was acting ‘in response to a series of unprecedented sanctions’ and was imposing its own measures ‘on the basis of reciprocity.’
The ministry said its actions were an ‘inevitable consequence of the extremely Russophobic course taken by the current US Administration, which, in a desperate attempt to maintain American hegemony, has relied, discarding all decency, on the frontal constricting of Russia.’
It comes amid a growing wave on anti-U.S. propaganda from the Kremlin and other public figures after weeks of mounting economic pressure on Russia.
A member of Russia’s parliament called for reparations from the United States on Sunday – including the return of historic settlements in Alaska and California -over the west’s vast economic sanctions.
Russian forces have apparently stalled in Ukraine, and have made little progress in takin the capital Kyiv.
Instead they have kept up a bombardment of Ukrainian cities and used long-range missile to attack targets in the west of the country.
The State Department added to its list of sanctions on Tuesday, barring Lukashenko and his family from entering the U.S. or doing business with Americans.
And it added Viktor Zolotov, the commander-in-chief of Russia’s National Guard, and Alexander Mikheev, the director-general of Rosoboronexport, a state-controlled company trading in weapons, to its sanctions list.
‘Today’s designations demonstrate the United States will continue to impose concrete and significant consequences for those who engage in corruption or are connected to gross violations of human rights,’ said Office of Foreign Assets Control Director Andrea Gacki.
‘We condemn Russia’s attacks on humanitarian corridors in Ukraine and call on Russia to cease its unprovoked and brutal war against Ukraine.’
The US has previously hit Belarus with sanctions because of its backing for the Russian invasion, extending export control policies to the country.
Other new measures target a judge and an investigator in Russia’s prosecution of two outspoken critics of alleged corruption and rights abuses.
The mayor of Kyiv announced today a 36-hour curfew from 8pm on Tuesday until 7am on Thursday at the ‘decision of the military command’ after an apartment building in Kyiv was hit this morning, killing at least four people (pictured)
Firefighters respond to a fire at a residential building that was hit by a Russian attack Tuesday
Vladimir Putin’s stuttering invasion has forced even his close allies to admit, publicly, that things are not going to plan but, as Russia’s invasion falters, its methods become more brutal – with cities increasingly coming under indiscriminate rocket fire (pictured, a Ukrainian soldier inspects the rubble of a destroyed apartment building in Kyiv on Tuesday)
At the same time the United Kingdom announced a new tranche of sanctions, while Canada took action against 15 more Russian officials.
In London, the Foreign Office said it was hitting more than 370 individuals and entities, bringing the total number of sanctions listed to more than 1,000 since the invasion of Ukraine began.
And more could follow.
‘We’ve always been clear that this is essentially a rolling process and I think what you find over time is the cumulative impact of the sanctions we’ve applied to date are really biting on the Russian economy and people around Putin,’ said a senior official, according to the Press Association.
‘We want to keep going because it is clear he is not prepared to de-escalate at the moment.’
The Kremlin has been flooding the airwaves of its state-run channels with pro-war propaganda that paints a vastly different portrait to reality and shields the Russian people from the horrors of Vladimir Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine, the Daily Beast first reported.
Moscow’s TV pundits and show hosts have also begun endorsing the idea of publicly hanging Ukrainians who are standing against Russia — something the Kremlin has reportedly already mulled, according to Bloomberg.
Kremlin ‘spin doctor’ Oleg Matveychev shared a list of demands on Russian state TV for ‘after Ukraine’s demilitarization is completed’
Russia ran several settlements in North America during the 19th century, among two of the most prominent being California’s Fort Ross and various colonies in Alaska
Putin’s ‘spin doctor,’ Duma member Oleg Matveychev, appeared on Russian state news on Sunday, outlining a series of demands for both Washington and Kyiv ‘after Ukraine’s demilitarization is completed.’
‘We should be thinking about reparations from the damage that was caused by the sanctions and the war itself, because that too costs money and we should get it back,’ Matveychev said on Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov.
He continued, ‘The return of all Russian properties, those of the Russian empire, the Soviet Union and current Russia, which has been seized in the United States, and so on.’
Solovyov asked if the lawmaker specifically meant Alaska and the former Russian settlement of Fort Ross, California.
‘That was my next point. As well as the Antarctic,’ Matveychev said. ‘We discovered it, so it belongs to us.’
The first Russian colony on Alaska was founded in 1784, named Three Saints Bay. There began the Russian-American Company, a trading monopoly chartered by Czar Paul I in 1799 which drove the Empire’s expansion in North America.
Alaska was sold to the US in 1867 during Andrew Johnson’s presidency for $7.2 million — which would be approximately $144.4 million in 2021.
The Russian-American company built Fort Ross, less than three hours outside of modern-day San Francisco, in 1812. The settlement was sold into private hands in 1841.