ADVERTISEMENT The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted in announcing the action that the officials were barred in response to the Biden administration’s sanctions levied last month as a result of the Russian poisoning and imprisonment of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. “Taking into account the unprecedented nature of the complications provoked by Washington in Russian-American relations, it was decided to deviate from the usual practice not to 'highlight' countermeasures publicly undertaken by the Russian side,” the ministry said in a statement. The move to ban the current and former officials also comes the day after Biden signed an executive order levying further sanctions on Russia for its involvement in the SolarWinds hack, which compromised at least nine federal agencies, and for interfering in U.S. elections.