The British government said on Thursday it has imposed its biggest sanctions package against Russia for 18 months, targeting people involved in the Ukraine war, African mercenary groups, and a nerve agent attack on British soil.

The foreign ministry said it sanctioned 56 bodies and individuals, aiming to hurt Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war effort and Russia’s “malign activity globally.”

Among them were 10 entities based in China said to be supplying machinery and components for the Russian military.

“Today’s measures will continue to push back on the Kremlin’s corrosive foreign policy, undermining Russia’s attempts to foster instability across Africa and disrupting the supply of vital equipment for Putin’s war machine,” British foreign minister David Lammy said.

The Russian embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

Most of the measures were aimed at companies based in Russia, China, Turkey, and Kazakhstan accused of aiding the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the supply of machine tools, microelectronics, and components for drones.

They include firms that European intelligence sources believe to be part of a Russian attempt to establish a weapons programme in China, according to a Reuters report in September.

Britain also said the latest sanctions would address Russian activity in Libya, Mali, and the Central African Republic by targeting three private mercenary groups with links to the Kremlin, including the Kremlin-controlled Africa Corps, and 11 individuals.

Amongst the individuals sanctioned was Denis Sergeev, whom British police have charged with the murder attempt on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southern English city of Salisbury in March 2018.

Mr Sergeev, who Britain said was acting under the alias Sergey Fedotov, was one of three Russians said by Britain to have been GRU military intelligence officers suspected of carrying out the attack.

Last month, a public inquiry into the death of a woman who was accidentally poisoned by the nerve agent heard that Skripal believed Mr Putin himself ordered the Novichok attack.

Moscow has repeatedly rejected British accusations that it was involved. 

(Reuters/NAN)