Actor Morgan Freeman and actor/film maker Rob Reiner are on a list of close to 1,000 Americans banned by Moscow’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs from visiting Russia.
Others making the list published Saturday on the ministry’s website include U.S. government officials, lawmakers and other political figures including politicians Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and, somewhat mysteriously, the late Senator John McCain.
McCain is one of three former senators to appear on the list who are deceased. Among the living are Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and George Soros.
All are accused of “inciting Russophobia” by Moscow in retaliation for similar moves by Washington since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, SKY News reports.
Reiner’s and Freeman’s entries make reference to their work together in support of the Committee to Investigate Russia, a nonprofit focused on exposing allegations of Russian interference in U.S. elections.
Reiner is on the advisory board of the group, which launched in 2017, while Freeman, 84, voiced over a video it released.
File/Morgan Freeman and Rob Reiner arrive at the premiere of ”The Bucket List” directed by Rob Reiner on January 17, 2008 in Paris, France. (Francois Durand/Getty)
“We have been attacked,” Freeman said in the video, referring to Russia’s still unproven interference in the 2016 presidential election. “We are at war.”
“The Russian counter-sanctions are necessary and aim to constrain the U.S. which is trying to impose a neocolonial ‘world order’ on the rest of the planet… to change its position and recognise new geopolitical realities,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in its statement.
Moscow claimed it remained open to “honest dialogue” and drew a distinction between the people of the U.S. and the authorities “inciting Russophobia.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Hunter Biden, Sen. Lindsey Graham, journalist George Stephanopoulos, film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and others made the cut and are free to travel with Moscow’s approval.