The Australian government has imposed new sanctions on russian propagandists who tried to legitimize russia's military invasion of Ukraine, as well as politicians and security figures and organizations that supported the invasion, - reported by Radio Svoboda.
"The russian government is conducting a large-scale disinformation campaign both inside and outside russia. We have sanctioned 11 individuals and 12 organizations for russian propaganda and disinformation, based on measures already taken against 32 propagandists in March 2022. Among them are people in the russian media industry who promote false narratives of the russian government," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Australian government is also imposing financial sanctions on organizations, including “troll farms”, that create and spread misinformation on the Internet, many of which are related to russia's intelligence services.
Among the organizations affected by the restrictions is the private military company Wagner, which is called "the private army of russian President putin."
"The four people who came under sanctions for supporting the invasion are Alexander Chupryan, acting as Minister of Emergency Situations of the russian federation; Sergey Korolev, First Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service [FSB]; Nikolay Bogdanovsky, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of russia; and Ilya Kiva, a former pro-russian member of the Ukrainian parliament," the Australian diplomatic mission said.
In total, Australia has imposed sanctions on 827 individuals and 62 legal entities due to russia's military invasion of Ukraine.
In the beginning of May the government of Australia expanded sanctions against the russian federation. 75 deputies of the State Duma [Council] of the russian federation, 32 so-called "ministers" of CADLR [certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions], and also the russian TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov were affected by a new package of restrictions.
Australia was one of the first to impose sanctions after the russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. President vladimir putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and others were barred from entering the country. Australia has also banned russia from importing luxury items from the country. There is a ban on exports to russia of alumina and aluminum ores.
In response,russia recognized Australia as an "unfriendly" country.
In March, Australia imposed restrictive measures against Alexander Lukashenko, who considers himself President of Belarus, his family and russian propagandists.