Russia permanently BANS 25 US citizens including Sean Penn, Ben Stiller, Senator Kyrsten Sinema

The Russian government announced permanently banned 25 more Americans on Monday, including actors Ben Stiller and Sean Penn.

Moscow’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the sanctions are in response to the ‘ever-expanding personal sanctions’ levied by Washington.

The list also includes several US senators, including Democrats Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly of Arizona; Republican Rick Scott of Florida; Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania; and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota.

Biden administration Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has also been sanctioned in addition to Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod.

The statement gave no added details about why or how the sanctioned Americans were chosen. 

The United States has sanctioned numerous Russian officials and Kremlin-tied elites since leader Vladimir Putin ordered a brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24. 

Actors Penn and Stiller have both visited Kyiv and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as Hollywood’s most outspoken critics of Russia’s attack. 

Hollywood actor and Goodwill Ambassador Ben Stiller meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 20, 2022

Democrat Senator Kyrsten Sinema (pictured on August 6, 2022) is among a handful of US senators who were sanctioned by Russia on Monday

Penn, who’s known for his global activism work in addition to his Hollywood films, was in Ukraine from the beginning of the invasion filming a documentary about the bloody assault, and had returned multiple times since.

Stiller is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Refugee Agency. The ‘Zoolander’ star visited Ukraine at the end of June and called Zelensky his ‘hero.’ 

US sanctions against Russian entities and individuals all the way up to Putin himself, as well as his top deputies.

Russia has in turn levied sanctions against President Joe Biden and his family, multiple television news hosts, policy analysts and other notable figures.

Last month the Biden administration finally acted on calls to sanction Putin’s alleged lover Alina Kabaeva – supposedly mother to four of the autocrat’s children. 

Kabaeva, the head of a pro-Putin media group who was once a celebrated gymnast, was among several Kremlin-linked elites sanctioned by the Treasury Department after Russia’s invasion passed the six-month mark.