Actors Sean Penn and Ben
Stiller have been officially and permanently banned from entering Russia,
as are 23 other “members of the US Congress, high-ranking officials,
representatives of the business and expert communities, as well as cultural
figures.”
Russia’s foreign ministry
made the announcement Monday in response to what it calls “the
ever-expanding personal sanctions by the G. Biden Administration against
Russian citizens.”
“The hostile actions of
the American authorities, which continue to follow a Russophobic course,
destroying bilateral ties and escalating confrontation between Russia and the
United States, will continue to be resolutely rebuffed,” a statement
reads. Though maybe it has more to do with the fact that Russia is invading
Ukraine at the moment and not America’s “Russophobic course” that is
“destroying bilateral ties” between the two countries. Just a
thought.
Penn had traveled to Ukraine
to make a documentary for Vice as Russia was planning its invasion of
the sovereign nation.
In February, he issued the
following statement: “Already a brutal mistake of lives taken and hearts
broken, and if he doesn’t relent, I believe Mr. Putin will have made a most
horrible mistake for all of humankind. President Zelensky and the Ukrainian
people have risen as historic symbols of courage and principle. Ukraine is the
tip of the spear for the democratic embrace of dreams. If we allow it to fight
alone, our soul as America is lost.”
More recently in April, Penn
called on world leaders to “#ArmUkraineNow.”
“Let’s unite to stop the
war in Ukraine,” he tweeted. “Let’s defend freedom and save
lives.”
Stiller, meanwhile, traveled
to Ukraine as part of the UN Refugee Agency to meet people “who have been
impacted by the war” and hear “how it’s changed their lives,” he
said as part of a video message posted by the UN Refugee Agency in June.
“War and violence are
devastating people all over the world,” he continued. “Nobody chooses
to flee their home. Seeking safety is a right, and it needs to be upheld for
every person.”
