Russia bars entry to more New Zealanders over sanctions

Russia’s foreign ministry announced on Thursday it would ban 31 New Zealand citizens from entering the country for promoting an “anti-Russian agenda” and supporting Ukraine, the second set of entry bans in six months.
The list includes journalists from several publications, former Defence Minister Ron Stanley Mark and an international relations professor from the University of Otago. They are all indefinitely barred from entering Russia.
The foreign ministry warned it would add further names to its ban list as long as Wellington continued to pursue what it called an anti-Russian course.
Thursday’s action takes the number of New Zealander’s barred entry into Russia to 193, following two waves of sanctions last year that also barred Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Ardern announced last month a further NZ$3 million ($1.92 million) in humanitarian support for Ukraine as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy became just the second foreign leader to ever address the New Zealand parliament.