UK imposes sanctions for CWC violations by Russian troops

The UK government has imposed sanctions against three Russian military organisations, and one individual, under its Financial Sanctions: Chemical Weapons regime.

In a press release, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (‘FCDO’) said that it had sanctioned ‘Russia’s Radiological Chemical and Biological Defence (CBR) troops and their commander…for the deployment of barbaric chemical weapons in Ukraine,’ and that it ‘called out Russia’s flagrant violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and [urged] Russia to immediately cease all such activity.’

It said that the action ‘continue[d] the Foreign Secretary’s personal mission to target the full spectrum of the Kremlin’s malign activity through our arsenal of sanctions.’

Those sanctioned are:

• The Radiological Chemical and Biological Defence Troops of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation 
• Igor Kirillov, Head of the Radiological Chemical and Biological Defence Troops of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation 
• the Russian Ministry of Defence 27th Scientific Centre
• the Russian Ministry of Defence 33rd Central Scientific Research and Testing Institute

See: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-sanctions-russian-troops-deploying-chemical-weapons-on-the-battlefield and https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/financial-sanctions-chemical-weapons