In a move that is seen as retaliation, Russia has imposed a raft of sanctions on a couple of senior US leaders.
The measures include blocking their entry into Russia and freezing any assets held in the country.
US President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are among the notable figures in the Kremlin list.
Other members in the 12-member sanction list include current Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, press secretary Jen Psaki, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Deputy National Security Adviser Daleep Singh, US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo, and President of the Export-Import Bank of the US Reta Jo Lewis.
Russia’s foreign ministry however clarified that the sanctions will not impede necessary high-level contacts for the affected individuals.
Russia is now the most sanctioned country in the world.
Western countries have already sanctioned top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
On Tuesday, the US announced sanctions on 11 Russian defence leaders and signalled that it could levy sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Moscow-allied Belarus.
Earlier, the UK slapped sanctions on another 370 Russian individuals, including former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev.
President Biden is due to travel to Europe next week to attend an emergency Nato summit in Brussels where he will assert Washington’s “iron-clad” backing to its allies, the White House said on Tuesday.
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