‘Russophobic’: McConnell added to list of U.S. officials banned from Russia
“Moscow Mitch” can no longer travel to the country that his critics accuse him of being beholden to.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that Mitch McConnell was prohibited from entering the country, due to his role in “formulating the Russophobic policy of the U.S.”
McConnell was included in a list of 25 people, including six U.S. senators from both parties. Along with McConnell, it includes First Lady Jill Biden, Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and a host of university professors and foreign policy minds viewed as hostile to Russia.
McConnell’s office appeared to take the news in jest, with spokesman Doug Andres tweeting #MoscowMitch reacting to the news.
McConnell earned that nickname during former President Donald Trump’s administration when he voted to block sanctions against Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who is seen as a powerful ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
McConnell, who was majority leader at the time, argued that the sanctions could have produced ripple effects that damaged the U.S. economy.
But at the same time, media reports cited negotiations between a Deripaska company to build an aluminum factory in Kentucky, a plan that some ex-McConnell staffers were lobbying to make happen.
McConnell later told reporters at the time that the easement of sanctions against Deripaska were “completely unrelated to anything that might happen in my home state.”
But the suspicion over the episode led to the #MoscowMitch brand, which is still hurled by liberals on social media.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, McConnell has been much more hawkish in his rhetoric against the former Soviet Union.
He’s argued for sending more U.S. weaponry to assist the Ukrainian resistance of Russia’s “brutal and indiscriminate assault.” McConnell visited Ukraine in May and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
At a rotary club meeting in Florence on Monday, McConnell emphasized the importance of winning the war that is now more than four months old.
“We have to beat the Russians in Ukraine,” he said to applause. “If we don’t stop the Russians in Ukraine now it’s going to cost us a whole lot more later.”
“My attitude is, I’m willing to give them anything they’ll shoot, that they think will be helpful,” he added.
