Russia bans US president’s wife, daughter from entry

MOSCOW

Russia on Tuesday blacklisted 25 more US citizens, including Jill and Ashley Biden, the wife and daughter of US President Joe Biden.

The restrictive measures are imposed in response to constantly expanding US sanctions against Russian political and public figures, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The rest of the banned people take part in the work of the so-called Yermak-McFaul group – an international group headed by Andriy Yermak, chief of Ukraine's presidential office, and Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia, which develops recommendations on anti-Russian restrictions.

Currently, the list of US citizens banned from entering Russia permanently includes 1,048 names.

In a separate statement, the ministry said it summoned Swedish Charge d'Affaires Johannes Danielsson and told him that the activities of the Swedish Institute and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) in Russia are "undesirable" and must be immediately stopped.

"Currently, the projects implemented on the territory of the Russian Federation by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Swedish Institute (...) do not meet the stated goals of promoting the development of bilateral humanitarian and environmental cooperation, but focus on the desire to destabilize Russian society.

"The financing of such projects, despite repeated reminders from the Russian side about the need to make them transparent, was not transparent," the ministry said.

It pointed out that since the beginning of Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine, Sweden openly stated that the financing of the organizations will be directed toward the support of "Russian democratic, human rights, environmental NGOs, and independent media."