Former US President Barack Obama and comedian Stephen Colbert are among 500 US citizens banned from entering Russia in response to the latest sanctions announced by Washington, the Kremlin’s Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry also said Russia had rejected a recent US request for consular access to Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Hershkovich, who was arrested in March on suspicion of espionage, Sky News reported.

The move was prompted by the U.S. refusal last month to grant visas to media who were traveling with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the United Nations, the ministry said in a statement.

“Washington should have understood a long time ago that no hostile attack on Russia will go unpunished,” she added.

45 members of the US House of Representatives, Senators Jay D. Vance, Kathy Britt and Eric Schmitt, as well as former ambassadors to Russia John Tefft and John Huntsman were banned.

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