Apr. 17—MOSCOW — Rep. Dusty Johnson was sanctioned by the Russian government late last week, something Johnson said he considers an honor.
“Putin sanctioned me today. I’ll consider it a badge of honor,” Johnson said in a Wednesday evening tweet.
The sanctions were announced by the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation on April 13 as a retaliation against 398 U.S. Representatives who recently passed sanctions against 328 members of the state’s Duma — the lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly.
Other members of the Duma had previously been blacklisted, or banned from entering the United States.
Russia’s sanctions against American lawmakers came specifically in response to a round of
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American sanctions that were passed on March 24,
where the White House placed restrictions on over 400 Russian individuals and entities that “fuel Putin’s war machine.”
American sanctions came as President Joe Biden traveled to Europe to meet with G7 leaders and other European Union member-states to discuss initiatives to share information about and coordinate responses to “evasive measures intended to undercut the effectiveness and impact of our joint sanctions actions.”
“Together, we will not allow sanctions evasion or backfilling,” a statement issued by the White House reads. “As part of this effort, we will also engage other governments on adopting sanctions similar to those already imposed by the G7 and other partners.”
Actions from the United States
also included efforts to destabilize Russia’s Central Bank
by limiting their ability to access and utilize international reserves, including gold, to aid their crumbling economy.
Since their invasion of Ukraine in February, the value of the ruble dropped by as much as 40% when compared to the American dollar —
though it’s since recovered to pre-invasion values
since Russia transitioned to using a gold-based standard.
It’s unclear how Russia determined who to sanction and who to spare, as some Democrats and Republicans alike were left off the Kremlin’s list.
A full list of which lawmakers were sanctioned can be found
on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.