Russia has added 18 British military, political and academic figures to its entry ban list in response to London’s efforts “to reduce Moscow’s influence in the international arena,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced Monday.
“Russophobic British officials don’t shy away from… discrediting our country’s constitutional order and social and political processes,” the ministry said.
Minister of State for Defense Procurement James Cartlidge, Deputy Chief of the Defense Staff Roland Walker, Deputy National Security Adviser Sarah Macintosh and Royal Navy Director of Submarines Simon Asquith lead the military section of Russia’s list.
Three members of Britain’s upper-chamber House of Lords are included alongside nine academics from Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and other universities.
“The so-called brain trusts functioning on the basis of the largest British and Western educational institutions contribute significantly to London’s subversive work on the Russian track,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.
Moscow’s so-called “stop list” was accompanied by accusations that London was arming the “neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv” and “pushing the Zelensky regime to continue the bloodshed.”
“The British must realize that they’re just as responsible as the Ukrainian neo-Nazis for crimes against civilians,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The United Kingdom has imposed asset freezes and travel bans on almost 2,000 Russian nationals on accusations of supporting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.