The president of Newport News Shipbuilding has been banned from traveling to Russia as part of that country’s latest wave of personal sanctions against U.S. citizens.
Jennifer Boykin, who leads Newport News Shipbuilding for Huntington Ingalls, was listed among 92 Americans who will be prevented from entering Russia indefinitely.
The group, announced by Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday, includes journalists, government officials and the heads of several American defense and financial companies.
The ministry said it had, in part, targeted “heads of key defence (sic) companies and financial institutions which supply weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and sponsor the Kiev regime,” according to a translation of the release.
Todd Borkey, another Huntington Ingalls executive, was also named on the list.
Huntington Ingalls directed questions about the sanctions and its executives’ inclusion on the list to the U.S. Department of State.
At its shipyard in Newport News, the company builds and provides maintenance for U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and other vessels.
Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement the sanctions are in response to what it calls “the Russophobic policy” of the Biden administration.
Nations around the globe leveled heavy sanctions against Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The country responded with its own sanctions, periodically adding more Americans to its banned list.
Currently, the U.S State Department warns against traveling to Russia because of the ongoing war against Ukraine and limited ability to help citizens in the country. The Department also says businesses could face criminal and civil charges in the United States if they do business with Russia or Russia-occupied territories.
“Businesses increasingly risk severe civil and criminal penalties in navigating the raft of economic sanctions, export controls, and import restrictions imposed on Russia by the United States and its allies and partners,” the department wrote in a memo in February.
Monday’s move didn’t seem to be in response to anything specific, but on Wednesday, Russia was hit with another round of U.S. sanctions after the Department of Justice revealed a wide-ranging campaign meant to spread Russian propaganda and disrupt American elections.
American authorities indicted two employees of Russian state-owned media who allegedly spent $10 million to create and distribute online content to American audiences.
