Russia has banned more than 200 U.S. citizens -- including State Department spokesman Matthew Miller -- from entering the country in retaliation for sanctions imposed by Washington on Russians for their support of the Kremlin's ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said in a statement on March 14 that a total of 227 Americans were banned because they "are involved in the outlining, implementation, and justification of the current U.S. administration's Russophobic course, as well as directly being involved in anti-Russia actions."
The list, which now totals 2,078, targets representatives of the executive branch of power in the United States, businesspeople, journalists, and academics.
Along with Miller, the list includes former U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan, former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University President Emeritus Lawrence Summers, State Department policy adviser Derek Chollet, Deputy Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi, and Alexander Vindman, the Kyiv-born former National Security Council's European affairs director whose testimony before the U.S. Congress provided evidence that resulted in the abuse of power charge in then-President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial.
SEE ALSO: Navalny's Widow Calls Putin A 'Gangster' Unworthy To Be Recognized As President"In addition to declaring undesirable in the Russian Federation a number of American humanitarian NGOs used by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to recruit 'agents of influence,' the current expansion of the Russian 'stop list' aims, among other things, to consolidate Washington’s reflexive awareness of the simple truth that that any aggressive attempts will not go unpunished and will receive a decisive rebuff," the statement said.
Kimberly Marten, a political-science professor at Columbia University, and Rob Person, a professor of international relations at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, both called being placed on the list a "badge of honor."
"Some professional news: as of today I’ve been officially sanctioned by the Russian government and banned from the country. It's a badge of honor that I will wear with the greatest pride," Person wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Separately on March 14, the ministry issued a statement accusing Austria of "yet another unfriendly step" for its move to expel two diplomats from the Russian Embassy in the capital, Vienna.
A day earlier, the Austrian Foreign Ministry ordered two Russian diplomats to leave the country, stressing that they "engaged in acts incompatible with their diplomatic status" and were declared "personae non gratae."
The details about the Russian diplomats or their actions were not provided. An Austrian official with knowledge of the matter told the AP on March 13 on the condition of anonymity that the expulsions were related to spying activities.
Russia's Foreign Ministry called the decision "ungrounded," adding that Vienna is "fully responsible for the consequences of the situation" and that "measures in response will be carried out in a timely manner."