Russia on Monday banned 25 more Americans from entering the country, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, multiple U.S. senators and actors Ben Stiller and Sean Penn.
The additions, which brings the total number of Americans banned from entering Russia to 1,073, are in response to U.S. sanctions on Russians following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In addition to Raimondo, Russia’s newest sanctions target multiple senior Commerce Department officials, including Deputy Secretary Don Graves and two assistant secretaries.
The list also includes six senators: Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). Russia had previously sanctioned more than a dozen other sitting senators. Russia also on Monday banned from entering the country actors Sean Penn and Ben Stiller, both of whom visited Ukraine during the war.
Penn was in Ukraine in February to film a documentary as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces moved in, and he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the eve of the invasion.
“I do know that we have to invest everything that we have to support the Ukrainian people and to support President Zelensky, or I do not think we will have a legitimate memory of what America hopes to be,” the “Milk” star told CNN’s Anderson Cooper during a March interview. Stiller met with Zelensky in late June in connection with his role as global goodwill ambassador to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
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