Moscow, in response to sanctions, bans nine Canadian citizens from entering Russia

In response to the Canadian sanctions imposed in March, Russia decided to ban nine Canadian citizens from entering the country indefinitely, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Canada imposed new sanctions on nine Russian officials on March 24 for “gross and systematic human rights violations in Russia,” to which the Kremlin promised a response. Continue reading

Russia imposed its travel ban on David Lametti, Attorney General and Attorney General of Canada, Anne Kelly, Commissioner for the Canadian Correctional Service, and Canadian Police Commissioner Brenda Lucki.

Also on the Russian list were Marci Surkes, Policy Director of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Jody Thomas, Deputy Minister of the Department of National Defense, and Mike Rouleau, Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces Arm.

Russia’s sanctions also apply to Brian Brennan, deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Canadian Admiral Scott Bishop, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry said it was taking revenge in response to the “illegitimate sanctions” Canada imposed on Russian citizens in the case of Alexei Navalny.

An outspoken critic of the Kremlin, Navalny was arrested earlier this year and given a two-and-a-half year prison sentence for parole violations related to an embezzlement conviction he believes is fraudulent.

Canada’s State Department did not have an immediate response.

Navalny was arrested on his return to Russia from Germany in January, where he was being treated with a banned neurotoxin for poisoning in Russia, which German authorities discovered. The Kremlin says it saw no evidence of his poisoning and that his detention is not political.

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