The United Kingdom has imposed the largest package of sanctions against Russia in 18 months, Reuters reports, citing the country's government.
The sanctions target companies and individuals involved in the war in Ukraine, groups of African mercenaries and those involved in the Novichok nerve agent attack.
The UK Foreign Office announced that it had imposed sanctions on 56 organisations and individuals aimed at countering Russian President Vladimir Putin's military efforts and Russia's ‘malign activities around the world’.
Among them are 10 companies based in China that have supplied equipment and components to the Russian army.
‘Today's measures will continue to stand up to the Kremlin's corrosive foreign policy, undermining Russia's attempts to promote instability in Africa and disrupting the supply of vital equipment to Putin's war machine,’ said British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
The majority of the measures targeted companies from Russia, China, Turkey and Kazakhstan, which are accused of facilitating Russia's invasion of Ukraine by supplying machine tools, microelectronics and drone components. These include firms that European intelligence sources believe are part of a Russian attempt to establish a weapons programme in China.
London also said that the latest sanctions would target Russian activities in Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic, three private mercenary groups linked to the Kremlin, including the Kremlin-controlled African Corps, and 11 individuals.
Among those sanctioned is Denis Sergeev, who was accused by British police of attempting to assassinate former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southern English city of Salisbury in March 2018. Sergeev operated under the pseudonym Sergei Fedotov and was one of three Russians who, according to Britain, were GRU military intelligence officers suspected of carrying out the attack.