The UK announced Thursday new sanctions against “Russian propagandists and state media,” targeting two Kremlin-funded media organizations and a well-known presenter, over the invasion of Ukraine.
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The 14 new sanctions follow several previous rounds of sanctions against more than 1,000 Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities in response to Moscow’s war in its western neighbor.
“Britain has helped lead the world in exposing Kremlin disinformation, and this latest batch of sanctions hits the shameless propagandists who push out (Vladimir) Putin’s fake news and narratives,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
“We will keep on going with more sanctions to ramp up the pressure on Russia and ensure Putin loses in Ukraine. Nothing and no one is off the table.”
The latest sanctions list includes Russian Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Centre, who the UK foreign ministry said had become known as “the butcher of Mariupol” over Russia’s actions in the besieged Ukrainian city.
Britain also hit TV-Novosti, which owns the global television channel RT — formerly Russia Today — and Rossiya Segodnya, which controls the news agency Sputnik.
Meanwhile, London targeted Sergey Brilyov, a famous TV anchor in Russia on state-owned media outset Rossiya, which it described as a “propagandist for Putin”.
“Having previously lived in the UK, (he) will no longer be able to access any of his UK assets or continue business dealings,” the ministry said.
Alexander Zharov, chief executive officer of Gazprom-Media, Alexei Nikolov, the managing director of RT, and Anton Anisimov, head of Sputnik International Broadcasting, were also sanctioned.
The UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom earlier this month revoked the license of RT with immediate effect, saying it was not “fit and proper” to broadcast in the country.
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