This new salvo of 56 sanctions is “the most significant taken against Russia since May 2023”, affirms the ministry.
Russia, which was a key player in Africa during the Soviet era, has been increasing its influence in African countries for several years, via groups of Russian mercenaries.
In addition to mercenary groups, London’s sanctions target around thirty suppliers to “Russia’s military-industrial complex”, in order to “limit the supply of crucial military equipment that Putin desperately needs for his war in Ukraine”. underlines the Foreign Office.
These entities based in China, Turkey and Central Asia are according to the United Kingdom “involved in the supply and production of equipment, including machine tools, microelectronic products and components for drones”.
London also sanctioned a member of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, whom it accuses of having “used the nerve agent Novichok” in the English city of Salisbury, where the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal made the subject of a poisoning attempt in 2018.
