© Stringer/ReutersThe Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov, meets the actor Gérard Depardieu in Grozny last year but Barack Obama is not welcome
On Saturday Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of the small Russian republic that has been the scene of two devastating separatist wars in the past 20 years, said he was placing Obama on a list of people banned from visiting.
The list also includes European Union figures José Manuel Barroso, Herbert van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton.
Kadyrov, wrote on his Instagram account that the ban was in response to US and EU actions in Ukraine, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, which he called "state terrorism".
On Saturday, the Russian foreign ministry released a strongly worded statement blaming the US, in part, for the Ukraine crisis.
"The United States continues to push Kiev into the forceful repression of [Ukraine's] Russian-speaking population's discontent," the statement said. "There is one conclusion - the Obama administration has some responsibility both for the internal conflict in Ukraine and its severe consequences."
Tensions between Russia and the US have increased over the Russian annexation of Crimea and the actions of pro-Russia separatists in the east of Ukraine, culminating recently in the downing of a civilian airliner, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, with the loss of 298 lives.
The foreign ministry statement continued: "Judging by the relentless slander campaign against Russia, organised by the American administration, they increasingly rely on sheer lies while conducting foreign policy."
"Kadyrov, wrote on his Instagram account that the ban was in response to US and EU actions in Ukraine, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, which he called "state terrorism".
And is it not true? He described exactly what such activities are - state terrorism.