People walk past the Russian Foreign Ministry headquarters in Moscow on April 5, 2022. (ALEXANDER NEMENOV / AFP)
MOSCOW – Russia has imposed personal sanctions against 29 media representatives and 20 defense figures of the United Kingdom in a retaliatory move, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
The media representatives, including journalists working for The Guardian, BBC, and others, and the defense figures, including British Minister for Defence Procurement Jeremy Quin, would be denied entry into Russia.
The media representatives, including journalists working for The Guardian, BBC, and others, and the defense figures, including British Minister for Defence Procurement Jeremy Quin, would be denied entry into Russia
According to the ministry, the move is a response to personal sanctions introduced by the British government against leading Russian journalists and heads of Russian defense companies.
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"The British journalists included in the list are involved in the deliberate dissemination of false and one-sided information about Russia and events in Ukraine and Donbass," the ministry said, adding that with their biased assessments, they also contribute to fueling Russophobia in British society.
The 20 individuals "linked to the UK defense industry were involved in making decisions on the supply of weapons to Ukraine, which are used by local punishers and Nazi formations to kill civilians and destroy civilian infrastructure," the ministry said.
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Moscow had promised to retaliate for foreign sanctions against Russian officials and bans on Russia media overseas.
It has already barred dozens of US and Canadian officials and journalists from entering.
Guardian writer Shaun Walker, who spent more than a decade as the newspaper's Moscow correspondent, tweeted that it was a "very strange/sad feeling to be put on their sanctions list along with other British colleagues".
Britain's media regulator revoked RT's licence to broadcast in March, saying it could not comply with the impartiality rules in Britain's broadcasting codes. Russia passed a law imposing a jail term of up to 15 years for intentionally spreading "fake" news.
With Reuters inputs