• The Russian government has banned Prime Minister Boris Johnson and 12 UK ministers and officials. 
  • They include Home Secretary Priti Patel and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. 
  • The news comes two days after the UK froze up to £10 billion in assets of Russian oligarchs. 

The Russian government announced on April 16 that it would be barring 13 UK officials from entering the country, including Boris Johnson. 

Other banned officials include Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, and Home Secretary Priti Patel.

In a press release, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote that they have banned the government officials "In connection with the unprecedented hostile actions of the British government, expressed, in particular, in the imposition of sanctions against top officials of the Russian Federation."

They said it was "a response to London's unbridled information and political campaign aimed at isolating Russia internationally, creating conditions for containing our country and strangling the domestic economy." 

The news comes two days after the UK froze up to £10 billion in assets of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich's longtime associates, saying this was "the largest asset freeze in UK history." 

The UK government said this move would "cut key revenue sources for Putin's war machine."

Johnson said on Wednesday that the gruesome scenes of dead civilians that have emerged out of the Ukrainian town of Bucha don't seem "far short of genocide" amid Russia's war with Ukraine. 

"I'm afraid that when you look at what's happening in Bucha, the revelations that we're seeing from what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has done in Ukraine, which doesn't look far short of genocide to me," Johnson told reporters. 

The complete list of UK officials now banned from Russia is: 

  1. Prime Minister Boris Johnson
  2. Minister of Justice Dominic Raab
  3. Foreign Minister Liz Truss
  4. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace 
  5. Transport Minister Grant Shapps 
  6. Home Secretary Priti Patel 
  7. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak
  8. Minister for Business, Energy, and Infrastructure Kwasi Kwarteng
  9. Minister for Digital, Culture, and Sports Nadine Dorries
  10. Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Defense James Heappey 
  11. First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon
  12. Attorney General Suella Braverman
  13. Former Prime Minister Theresa May
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