UK targets Russian ‘information warfare campaigns’ with new sanctions
Sanctions package hits 85 people and entities, two-thirds of them related to alleged Russian propaganda operations
Britain on Monday announced new sanctions targeting Russia’s “information warfare campaigns” over its full-scale Ukraine invasion, alongside those behind the alleged forced deportation and indoctrination of Ukrainian children.
The sanctions package hits 85 people and entities, two-thirds of them related to alleged Russian propaganda operations, including what London said were recent attempts to interfere in coming Armenian elections.
Among them were 49 individuals working for the Social Design Agency (SDA), including writers, translators and video makers responsible for “deceptive Kremlin propaganda”, the UK government said.
It already targeted the state-funded agency and SDA senior staff with curbs in October 2024, along with two other similar firms.
“The SDA has been tasked and funded by the Kremlin to deliver a series of interference operations designed to undermine democracy and weaken support for Ukraine,” Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement.
It added the operations were “almost certainly tasked by the Russian Presidential Administration, including seeking to establish pro-Russia organisations in Armenia and influence a change in power towards pro-Russia figures”.
Around a third of Monday’s sanctions package took aim again at those involved in what London called “Russia’s systematic campaign to forcibly deport and militarise Ukrainian children”.