Foreign Ministry bans Hilton and Cox from entering Russia

The Russian Foreign Ministry has banned 48 Australian citizens from entering the country. These are contractors of the military-industrial complex, journalists and municipal deputies, who, according to the department, form the “anti-Russian agenda”.

The blacklist included Deputy Prime Minister of Victoria Jacinta Allan, member of the board of directors of the military industrial enterprise Thales Australia Alan Ball and other employees, including vice president of sales and marketing Mark Hilton; SYPAQ Flight Operations Manager Luke Aspinall, South Australian Australia Day Board members Michelle Cox, Heather Holmes-Ross and Grant Meyer, and some journalists from The Australian newspaper.

The Foreign Ministry said the measures were a response to Canberra's sanctions against Russian legal entities and individuals, imposed "as part of the Russophobic campaign of the collective West."

Australia has backed Western states and imposed several rounds of restrictive measures against RUSSIA in response to military action in Ukraine . In particular, she banned the entry of representatives of the country's authorities, including President Vladimir Putin, Defense and Foreign Ministers Sergei Shoigu and Sergei Lavrov. The sanctions included Gazprom, Transneft, Russian Railways and other companies, the National Wealth Fund and the Ministry of Finance and a number of banks, including Sberbank, Gazprombank, VEB.RF and VTB.

Russia , which considers the sanctions illegal, retaliated by barring several Australians from entering.