UK targets media outlets over “disinformation”

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss of the UK has imposed further sanctions against 63 Russian citizens and businesses.

It includes Russian media companies and their staff who are “driving Putin’s brutal disinformation campaign.”

Russian war correspondents embedded with Russian soldiers in Ukraine, as well as various Russian media outlets, are all included in sanctions.

Social media, internet services and app store companies “must take action to block content from two of Russia’s major sources of disinformation, RT and Sputnik,” UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office says.

“These outlets have already been booted off the airwaves in Britain and we’ve barred anyone from doing business with them. Now we’ve moved to pull the plug on their websites, social media accounts and apps to further stop the spread of their lies,” Tech and Digital Economy Minister Chris Philp said.

The UK has also announced a ban on service exports to Russia.

It is forbidding the provision of public relations, management consulting, and accountancy services to Russian companies.

“Doing business with Putin’s regime is morally bankrupt and helps fund a war machine that is causing untold suffering across Ukraine,” Truss said.