NOURNEWS - Moscow has banned Canadian Prime Minister's wife Sophie Trudeau, Canadian Air Force Commander Eric Jean Kenny and 24 other people, including officials and top managers, from entering Russia, the country's foreign ministry said on Saturday.
"In response to further sanctions against Russia announced by the Canadian authorities, which affected not only the country's leadership, military and business circles, but in some cases the closest relatives of those who have been added to the 'black list,' entry into Russia is permanently closed for a similar category of Canadian citizens," the ministry announced in a statement, RIA Novosti reported.
The list of 26 individuals, among others, includes Canadian Maritime Forces Pacific Commander Rear-Admiral Angus Ian Topshee and Army Commander Lt.-Gen. Jocelyn (Joe) Paul.
"New countermeasures will soon follow in response to the hostile actions of Canadian Justin Trudeau's regime, who uses a militant Russophobia to good advantage. The additions to the Russian 'stop list' will be announced publicly," the ministry added.
In mid-March, Mascow announced, in response to Canada’s sanctions, Russia blacklisted 313 Canadian nationals, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign and Defense Ministers, Melanie Joly and Anita Anand.
The full list of Canadian nationals covered by the sanctions has 313 names.
In all, Canada’s blacklist has hundreds of Russian nationals. Earlier, sanctions over the special military operation in Ukraine were imposed on Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other government officials, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, TV host Vladimir Solovyov, TV Channel One director general Konstantin Ernst, businessmen Roman Abramovich, Oleg Deripaska, and Alisher Usmanov.
On February 24, Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country.
Following this step, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and several other countries announced sanctions against Russia individuals and legal entities.
NOURNEWS