Russia Blacklists 32 British Think Tank Experts — Russian Foreign Ministry

The list includes nine structures - Forward Strategy Limited, Institute for Statecraft, Media Diversity Institute, Toro Risk Solutions, Chatham House, Open Knowledge Foundation, Privacy International, Peace Child International, Aga Khan Foundation - and 32 of their employees

MOSCOW, August 19. /TASS/. Russia has supplemented its sanctions list with the names of 32 experts from British think tanks and consulting agencies, which are known for their anti-Russian policies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"A number of British think tanks, consulting agencies and other such structures are seriously contributing to London’s hostile efforts," it said. "That is why, it has been decided to put representatives from a range of such structures on Russia’s stop-list and bar them from entering Russia."

The list includes nine structures - Forward Strategy Limited, Institute for Statecraft, Media Diversity Institute, Toro Risk Solutions, Chatham House, Open Knowledge Foundation, Privacy International, Peace Child International, Aga Khan Foundation - and 32 of their employees. "Work on the expansion of the Russian stop-list in response to London’s hostile policy will continue," the ministry said.

According to the ministry, these organization are using popular mass media outlets and the internet to "propagate disinformation discrediting the Russian state in a futile attempt to create conditions for destabilizing the political situation in our country." "Apart from that, contracted by London sponsors, who are seeking to isolate Moscow in the international arena politically and economically, such think tanks are engaged in destructive activities in countries that are unfriendly to Russia, this way undermining the stability and wellbeing of their peoples," the ministry stressed.

"We note that the British government continues its aggressive anti-Russian course by declaring a futile goal of ‘dealing a strategic defeat’ on our country ‘on the battlefield,’ making an extensive use of the mechanism of illegitimate sanction restrictions and conducting a lie- and hypocrisy-based propaganda campaign," the ministry said. "All this reveals the Russophobic sentiment in the British political establishment and its plans to continue tough systemic confrontation with Russia."