Embassy comment on the expansion of London’s anti-Russian sanctions

On 9 December, the UK authorities announced yet another round of sanctions against our country. With these illegitimate unilateral measures London targets the Foundation for the Support and Protection of the Rights of Russian Federation Compatriots Living Abroad, as well as a number of individuals and organisations in the media and political research sectors.

The cynicism of this move is simply staggering. It is worth reminding here that the Foundation’s core mission is to assist those Russians who live abroad and are forced to defend their rights in foreign courts but struggle to cover legal costs.

Blacklisting the Foundation effectively deprives the most vulnerable members of the Russian diaspora – those who already experience pressure from local authorities on a regular basis – of their ability to protect their lawful rights and interests.

The anti-human nature of the UK’s sanctions policy becomes even more flagrant with a background of the previous restrictive measures against those rescuing children from the special military operation zone and providing humanitarian aid to the people who suffer from the terror inflicted by the Ukrainian armed forces.

Yet in this case London seems to have exceeded itself. In its official explanatory note, the British government admits that the evidence base was compiled from “open source material” and “there is a risk that information may exist that contradicts the conclusions” of the authorities. Does this mean that the UK government relied on Google and artificial intelligence in such an important matter, and no longer conceals that the imposed restrictions are groundless and illegitimate?

Plunging more and more into Orwellian logic, the United Kingdom seems to think that these sanction methods will rescue the Ukraine project. They will not.

Sanctions will not weaken Russia, but they will once again expose to the world the hypocritical nature of the British establishment, which pays lip service to implementing high principles that they talk so much about.