PARIS, France - Russia has banned U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his predecessor Theresa May, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and other British government members from entering the country in response to sanctions.
Russia's Foreign Ministry attributed its decision on Saturday to the 'unprecedented hostile actions of the British government, expressed, in particular, in the imposition of sanctions against the top officials of the Russian Federation'.
'London's unbridled information and political campaign aimed at the international isolation of Russia, creating conditions for containing our country and strangling the Russian economy' were responsible for the decision, the ministry said in a statement.
'In essence, the British leadership are deliberately aggravating the situation around Ukraine, pumping the Kyiv regime with lethal weapons and coordinating similar efforts on the part of NATO', the ministry added.
'The instigation by London is also unacceptable, that is strongly pushing not only its Western allies, but also other countries to introduce large - scale anti - Russian sanctions, which, however, are senseless and counterproductive', the ministry said.
The U.K. has joined other Western nations in imposing restrictive sanctions on Russian individuals and institutions amid President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
In March, U.K. Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a ban on the export of luxury goods to Russia, and tariffs on Russia goods worth more than $1 billion.
Sunak added that the U.K. will also deny Russia and Belarus access to its most favored nation trading tariff for hundreds of their exports, effectively depriving both countries from key benefits of their World Trade Organization membership.
The additional 35% tariff on Russian goods will be applied to imports including vodka, steel, works of art and fur.
A few days later, the U.K. revoked the broadcasting license of the Kremlin - backed propaganda network RT, according to a statement from regulators.
The statement from regulator Ofcom said its investigation into RT had found its licensee, ANO TV Novoski, was not fit and proper to hold a U.K. broadcast licensee.
And earlier this month, Britain sanctioned two 'key Russian oligarchs' connected to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, freezing up to $13 billion of assets linked to Eugene Tenebaum and David Davidovich.
The sanctions was 'the largest asset freeze action in U.K. history', the Foreign Office said in a statement.
The British government added that the sanctions were coordinated with Jersey authorities, who CNN reported earlier this week froze more than $7 billion dollars' worth of assets 'suspected to be connected' to Abramovich.
'We are tightening the ratchet on Putin's war machine and targeting the circle of people closest to the Kremlin. We will keep going with sanctions until Putin fails in Ukraine. Nothing and no one is off the table', British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was quoted saying in the statement.
Britain has sanctioned 106 Russian oligarchs, family members and associates since February, the statement added.
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