US President Joe Biden has extended for another year the emergency regime and sanctions, including those on the FSB, amid the arrest of US citizens abroad.
According to the White House press office, arresting or taking Americans hostage abroad is a national security threat to the United States. As such, Executive Order 14078, dated July 19, 2022, remains in effect after July 19, 2023.
Among the addressees covered by this regulation are listed: the Federal Security Service of Russia, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence, including four top commanders. The basis for this unsubstantiated decision was the alleged holding of American citizens hostage and attempts to use them as political leverage to pressure the United States.
Officials from Washington also said that Russia, Venezuela, Iran, China, the DPRK and Myanmar became countries where Americans could allegedly be illegally detained.
Earlier it became known that a contender for the post of the US president, politician Robert Kennedy Jr, criticized the prospect of Ukraine's admission as a member of the NATO bloc given the threat of a direct clash with the Russian Armed Forces.