UK sanctions Russian spies for malicious activity

BBC:

A number of Russian spies have been sanctioned for conducting a “sustained campaign of malicious cyber activity” including in the UK, the Foreign Office has said.

Three military intelligence units from Russia’s GRU espionage agency and 18 officers have had sanctions placed on them for allegedly “spreading chaos and disorder on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s orders”.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy linked the activity to the UK’s continued support of Ukraine, and said GRU spies were “running a campaign to destabilise Europe”.

Separately, the European Union placed its “strongest sanctions” yet on Russia, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called “essential and timely”.

The latest EU measures, announced on Friday, included a ban on transactions related to the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline and lowering a cap on the price at which Russian oil can be bought.

The UK joined the move to lower the price cap, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves saying Europe was “turning the screw on the Kremlin’s war chest”.

They come as European allies hope to ratchet up the pressure on Russia to bring the three-year-long war in Ukraine to an end.

But former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of Putin, said his nation’s economy would survive the sanctions and that Moscow will continue striking Ukraine “with increasing force”.

The EU sanctions are the 18th round of such measures since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.

The aim is to undermine Moscow’s ability to finance its war on Ukraine – something Western sanctions have so far failed to achieve, as Russia has increased its oil exports to China and India and operates a so-called shadow fleet of oil tankers around the globe.