UK sanctions target Russian general and media heavyweights
The UK government has expanded its sanctions against Russia to 14 more people and organisations principally involved with information and media, including a prominent TV anchor and the group that controls the RT television channel.
The new measures, unveiled by the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, are aimed at countering what Truss called the “torrent of lies” from Russian media about the invasion of Ukraine.
Another individual targeted in this set of sanctions is Col Gen Mikhail Mizintsev, the senior officer in charge of the siege of Mariupol, the southern Ukrainian city which has been bombarded relentlessly by Russian forces at enormous civilian cost.
Mizintsev, who heads the Russian national defence management centre, is accused of using similar tactics previously in bombing Syrian cities.
Among those targeted is Sergey Brilev, a presenter on the Russian state-run Rossiya channel. The Foreign Office notice said Brilev previously lived in the UK, but would no longer be able to visit or to access any UK assets.
Also targeted is TV-Novosti, which controls RT, the Russian TV station whose licence to broadcast in the UK was revoked recently by the UK regulator, Ofcom. Another media group is named – Rossiya Segodnya – which controls the state-run news agency Sputnik.
Other individuals named include: Aleksandr Zharov, the chief executive of Gazprom-Media and former head of Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal service for the supervision of communications, information technology and mass media; Alexey Nikolov, the managing director of RT; and Anton Anisimov, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik.
“We want to continue to further ratchet up the pressure on Putin and his regime,” Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said. “We know that countries can
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