LONDON — The U.K. is sanctioning leading figures from a host of Russian media firms as well as a Russian colonel accused of shelling civilians in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced 14 new sanctions Thursday, including against Sergey Brilev, a news anchor on Russia’s state-owned channel Rossiya. Brilev will be prevented from accessing his assets in Britain, entering the U.K. or dealing with any British business or citizen.
The same prohibitions will apply to Aleksandr Zharov, chief executive of Gazprom-Media, which owns TV channel NTV; Alexey Nikolov, managing director of RT; and Anton Anisimov, editor-in-chief of the Russian state-owned news agency Sputnik International Broadcasting.
Svetlana Zamlelova, chief editor of news outlet Journal Kamerton, and six other people associated with the Strategic Culture Foundation, an online journal registered in Russia, have also been sanctioned, following their addition to Australia’s own list of sanctions against Moscow.
The new package aims to tackle the “torrent of lies” told by the Kremlin over the invasion of Ukraine, U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.
“This latest batch of sanctions hits the shameless propagandists who push out Putin’s fake news and narratives,” she said.
In addition to the media figures, London is also moving to sanction general Mikhail Mizintsev, who serves as the chief of Russia’s National Defense Command and Control Centre, and is responsible for planning and monitoring all Russian military operations.
He has been referred to in media reports as the “butcher of Mariupol” and accused of ordering the bombing of a children’s hospital on March 9 as well as a theatre where civilians were sheltering on March 16. He is believed to be personally in charge of the ongoing siege of Mariupol.