A town in North Ossetia has added its own batch of sanctions against the West over the Ukraine crisis: It adopted a resolution that bans the U.S. president, top White House officials and the chief of NATO from meeting with its local legislators.
The local council in the town of Digora — population 10,000 — has ruled to "strip of the right to be received by deputies" 14 top Western leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, according to a photo of the resolution posted on the LiveJournal social network by Russia's leading blogger Rustem Agadamov, also known by his online name "Drugoi."
"Hello, real sanctions!" a user of the LiveJournal network commented.
"If this was shown to the individuals against whom these sanctions have been imposed, they would certainly die — from laughter," another said.
The resolution, adopted on Thursday, lists Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, House Speaker John Boehner, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI head James Comey, along with several senators, White House aides and Rasmussen.
After Russia's annexation of Crimea, Western nations have responded with a series of asset freezes and travel bans against Russian and Crimean officials, along with suspensions of trade and military cooperation programs.
Russia retaliated by imposing sanctions on nine U.S. officials and lawmakers and said it was barring 13 Canadian officials, lawmakers and public figures from the country.
