Russia applied sanctions to Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, in addition to sanctioning President Joe Biden; his son, Hunter Biden, and several other U.S. officials and political personalities.
The sanctions were described as a retaliation for similar sanctions by the Biden administration late last month in response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Clinton infamously benefited indirectly from Russian largesse as Secretary of State, when her husband, former President Bill Clinton, received a $500,000 speaking fee for a lecture in Moscow in 2010, just after a Russian company moved to control a U.S. uranium company — a move to which the State Department did not object. As the New York Times reported: “shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.”
The Hillary Clinton campaign also paid for a Russian “dossier” on then-candidate Donald Trump, fabricated using information allegedly obtained from Igor Danchenko, a researched who was once suspected of having been a Russian spy.
In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry explained its rationale, and provided a full list of those facing sanctions:
In response to a series of unprecedented sanctions that prohibit, among other things, entry to the United States for top officials of the Russian Federation, starting March 15, the Russian stop list includes, on the basis of reciprocity, President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, as well as several agency heads and other prominent US figures.
This step, taken as a response measure, is the inevitable result of the extreme Russophobic policy of the current US Administration, which, in a desperate attempt to maintain American hegemony, has abandoned any sense of decorum and placed its bets on the head-on containment of Russia.
However, we do not oppose maintaining official ties when it is in our national interests, and, if necessary, we will address the issues arising from the status of the black-listed individuals in order to organise high-level contacts.
The list of US citizens included in the stop list is as follows:
1. Joseph Robinette Biden;
2. Antony John Blinken;
3. Lloyd James Austin III;
4. Mark Alexander Milley;
5. Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan, National Security Advisor;
6. William Joseph Burns, Director of the CIA;
7. Jennifer Rene Psaki, White House Press Secretary;
8. Daleep Singh, Deputy National Security Advisor;
9. Samantha Jane Power, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development;
10. Robert Hunter Biden, son of the US President;
11. Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, former US presidential candidate;
12. Adewale Adeyemo, US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury;
13. Reta Jo Lewis, President and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
More announcements will be made soon concerning the expansion of the sanctions list to include other top US officials, military leaders, lawmakers, business executives, experts and media personalities who promote Russophobia or contribute to inciting hatred of Russia or imposing restrictive measures.
These actions will be taken in harmony with the major decisions of the Government of the Russian Federation in finance, banking and other areas to protect the Russian economy and ensure its stable development.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who is among those sanctioned, brushed off the sanctions, saying she had no Russia travel plans.
