LONDON, May 4. /TASS/. The UK government expanded its anti-Russian sanctions blacklisting the VGTRK broadcaster and certain journalists from Russia for covering the events in Ukraine, according to a statement by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office made public on Wednesday.
The restrictive measures which involve a ban on entering the country and the freezing of bank accounts if such are discovered were imposed on journalist Nailya Asker-Zade, war correspondents Yevgeny Poddubny, Alexander Kots, Dmitry Steshin, TV anchor Mikhail Leontyev, presidential aide and chairman of the board of directors of Channel One Maxim Oreshkin.
Additionally, restrictive measures were introduced against Russian truck producer Kamaz, CEO of the Otkritie Bank Mikhail Zadornov and Sovcombank CEO Dmitry Gusev. The British government also stressed that within the framework of the new restrictions, the Russian companies would lose the access to the UK’s management consulting, accounting and PR services.
"Our professional services exports are extraordinarily valuable to many countries, which is exactly why we’re locking Russia out. By restricting Russia’s access to our world-class management consultants, accountants and PR firms, we’re ratcheting up economic pressure on the Kremlin to change course," Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said. The statement noted that the UK’s accountancy, management consultancy, and PR services make up 10% of Russian imports in these sectors
The UK Foreign Office also blacklisted Russian Deputy Minister of Defense Nikolay Pankov, Irish journalist Bryan MacDonald who works for RT and Director of the Victory Museum Alexander Shkolnik. The sanctions were also imposed on the InfoRos news agency and the Strategic Culture Foundation and SouthFront internet resources.
UK sanctions
In all, since the onset of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the UK introduced sanctions against more than 1,600 Russian politicians, entrepreneurs, officials, journalists and enterprises. According to the Foreign Office, about 20 Russian banks were blacklisted with the total assets of 940 bln pounds (over $1.2 trln) as well as over 100 major entrepreneurs and their relatives with the total estimated assets of more than 170 bln pounds (about $220 bln).
Earlier, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reported that as a result of the sanctions, over 60% of Russia’s foreign currency reserves to the tune of more than $350 billion had been frozen as a retaliatory measure to the Russian special operation in Ukraine. The sanctions also included a ban on the export of a number of products, the UK’s airspace was closed for Russian planes, and a ban was introduced on Russian ships entering British ports, while many private companies decided to suspend their operations in Russia or completely abandon Russian projects refusing to invest in them.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. Following this, the US, the EU, the UK, Australia and a number of other countries announced the introduction of sanctions against Russian legal entities and private individuals.