OREANDA-NEWS Russia, in response to the sanctions regularly imposed by the US administration, is closing entry for 500 Americans, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"Among them are not only "iconic" figures, including former US President Barack Obama, but also current heads of various levels of executive power, ex-officials like Nina Yankovich, the curator of the White House on combating "Russian disinformation," senators and congressmen, experts and staff elected for the first time in the November 2022 elections."analytical"centers involved in the spread of Russophobic attitudes and fakes, as well as the heads of military-industrial complex companies supplying weapons to the regime in Kiev," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It is reported that the blacklist also includes "those in government and law enforcement agencies who are directly involved in the persecution of dissidents in the wake of the so-called "storming of the Capitol."

Smolenskaya Square also said that the request of the US Embassy in Moscow for a consular visit to reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested for espionage, is once again rejected in response to the non-issuance of visas to Russian journalists from the pool of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as a result of which they could not fly to New York to accompany his visit within the framework of the Russian presidency in the UN Security Council.