Fake President Morgan Freeman joins actual President Joe Biden on Russian ban list

Morgan Freeman has found his name on any number of prestigious lists over the years, with the Oscar winner the multiple-times recipient of tons of honorary degrees, triumphal statuary, and lifetime achievement awards recognizing his contributions to the arts. Today, though, he finds himself on a much stranger (if still extremely star-studded list): A newly released itemization of American citizens permanently banned from entering Russia.

This is per The Washington Post, which notes that Freeman’s name appears on a list released today by the Russian government, which continues to face international censure for its ongoing and deadly invasion of Ukraine. Other members of the list, which is being viewed mostly as a symbolic gesture, go as high as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as many members of their cabinet and press staffs, in addition to large swathe of the U.s. Congress.

And also, as it turns out, Morgan Freeman, who apparently picked up the ire of Vladimir Putin’s government by doing what he does best, using his deep voice and solemn countenance to lend a little gravitas to a cause. In this case, Freeman caught a ban for narrating and appearing in a 2017 video about alleged Russian interference in the U.S. election. “We have been attacked,” Freeman said in the video, which “pitches” a “movie script” about Putin’s rise to power and use of cyberattacks. “We,” Freeman says, bringing to bear the full power of his Fake President credentials, “Are at war.”

All told, the Russian “stop list” includes 963 people. Freeman appears to be the only well-known entertainer on the list—notable, since one major and pointed absence from the tally is former reality show star Donald Trump. Freeman has yet to comment on his inclusion in the list, although a number of other listed Americans have cited their addition to it as a sort of badge of honor.