Canada's newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland, is on the Kremlin's list of sanctioned foreign officials, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Wednesday.
“[Freeland] has been under sanctions since 2014, it's no secret," an unidentified source in the Russian Foreign Ministry told RIA Novosti. "She was added to the list of sanctioned officials in a countermeasure, because Canada imposed restrictions on Russia and its officials. The issue of removing her from the list is that it needs to be mutual.” The source maintained that sanctions against Freeland would not interfere with her contacts with Russian officials.
Freeland was appointed as Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs on Jan. 10. Before running for office in 2013, she worked as Moscow bureau chief and Eastern Europe correspondent for The FInancial Times.
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