UK imposes 14 new sanctions on Russian ‘propagandists’
The UK government announced on Thursday 14 new sanctions on Russian propagandists and State media, who it said spread lies and deceit about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “illegal invasion” of Ukraine.
The latest sanctions list includes Sergey Brilev, described as a famous TV anchor on Russia state-owned media Rossiya and propagandist for Putin. Having previously lived in the UK, Brilev will no longer be able to access any of his UK assets or continue business dealings. The UK is also directly sanctioning State media organisations, targeting the Kremlin funded TV-Novosti who own RT, formerly Russia Today, and Rossiya Segodnya who control news agency Sputnik.
“Putin’s war on Ukraine is based on a torrent of lies. Britain has helped lead the world in exposing Kremlin disinformation, and this latest batch of sanctions hits the shameless propagandists who push out Putin’s fake news and narratives,” said UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who is in India on Thursday for talks.
“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,” she said.
Following UK media watchdog Ofcom’s revocation of RT’s broadcasting licence recently, the latest set of sanctions are aimed at ensuring the channel will not be able to find its way back on UK televisions, and will prevent companies and individuals operating in the UK from doing business with Russian state propaganda vehicles RT and Sputnik, and key figures in those organisations.
The UK government said “disinformation is part of the Kremlin playbook and is used by Putin’s regime to obscure the truth of his unjust invasion”.
