Starmer, Blackford and Cameron among latest UK names on Russia’s sanctions list

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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, and former prime minister David Cameron are among the latest UK figures who have been added to Russia’s sanctions list.

The foreign ministry says the 39 prominent Britons have been banned from entering Russia.

It said it was acting in response to UK sanctions against Russians, which have been put in place in response to the war in Ukraine.

The list also features shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, shadow communities secretary Lisa Nandy, shadow international trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds, Conservative former cabinet minister Liam Fox, and former NATO secretary general George Robertson.

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The Russian government has also barred a number of Scottish politicians from the country in response to aid given to Ukraine following the invasion.

Holyrood finance secretary Kate Forbes, constitution secretary Angus Robertson, and Ukraine minister Neil Gray were all placed on the list.

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Scottish Green co-leader – and Scottish government minister – Lorna Slater and her fellow Green MSP Ross Greer have also been added, as has Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton.

Scotland’s First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon was similarly sanctioned earlier this year.

Other figures on the list include the head of Sky News, John Ryley, BBC presenter Huw Edwards, ITV News’ political editor Robert Peston, TalkTV presenter Piers Morgan, and The Sunday Times’ political editor Caroline Wheeler.

Reacting to the news on Twitter, Mr Morgan said: “It wasn’t on my immediate vacation to-do list.”

Russia says its “stop list” includes British politicians, businessmen, and journalists who “contribute to London’s hostile course aimed at the demonisation of our country and its international isolation”.

The foreign ministry hit out at the “continued application by the UK government of the mechanism of sanctions restrictions against representatives of the socio-political circles of Russia, domestic economic operators and the media”.

It said the “pernicious actions of the UK in planting Russophobia, spreading false information about our country and supporting the Kyiv neo-Nazi regime will receive an adequate and decisive response from the Russian side”.

“The choice in favour of confrontation is a conscious decision of the British political establishment, which bears all responsibility for the consequences.”