Infection of eukaryotic cells with lytic RNA viruses results in extensive interactions of viral gene products with macromolecular pathways of the host, ultimately leading to death of the infected cells. We show here that infection of cells with poliovirus results in the cytoplasmic accumulation of a variety of shuttling and non‐shuttling nuclear proteins that use multiple nuclear import pathways. In vitro nuclear import assays using semi‐permeabilized infected cells confirmed that nuclear import was blocked and demonstrated that docking of nuclear import receptor–cargo complexes at the cytoplasmic face of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) was prevented. Analysis of components of the NPC revealed that two proteins, Nup153 and p62, were proteolyzed during poliovirus infection. These results suggest that the cytoplasmic relocalization of numerous cellular proteins is caused by the inhibition of multiple nuclear import pathways via alterations in NPC composition in poliovirus‐infected cells. Blocking of nuclear import points to a novel strategy by which cytoplasmic RNA viruses can evade host immune defenses, by preventing signal transduction to the nucleus.