Russia blacklists Merrick Garland and Chris Wray as Putin responds to Biden: report

This Friday, the Kremlin announced that it will be expelling 10 U.S. diplomats while blacklisting eight current and former U.S. officialsincluding Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, Susan Rice and John Bolton, The Washington Post reports. The move comes as a response to increased sanctions leveled at Russia by the Biden administration over its attacks on the 2020 U.S. election.

While Russia's response will likely escalate tensions between Putin and the U.S., the Kremlin also signaled willingness to consider a summit between President Vladimir Putin and President Biden, according to the Post.

"The Foreign Ministry released the list of people banned from entry into Russia including Rice, a former ambassador the United Nations and now head of the Domestic Policy Council, and Bolton, who was dismissed as national security adviser by then president Donald Trump in 2019," the Post's Robyn Dixon writes. "Others included Attorney General Merrick Garland, director of U.S. National Intelligence, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the Homeland Security chief after earlier U.S. sanctions on Russian officials in similar posts. R. James Woolsey, former CIA director, was also named."

Read the full report over at The Washington Post.