UK sanctions Russia’s GRU agency and cyber spies over deadly nerve agent attack

The British government on Thursday imposed sanctions on Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, and a number of the agency’s cyber officers after a public inquiry concluded it was responsible for a deadly nerve agent attack on British soil in 2018.

The sanctions target the GRU in its entirety for the first time and name 11 of its officers, three of whom — Anatoliy Vladimirovich Istomin, Igor Andreyevich Bochka and Aleksey Andreyevich Umets — have not previously appeared in Western sanctions or law enforcement announcements.

The Foreign Office said the GRU “regularly” seeks to conduct hybrid operations, including cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, sometimes using criminal intermediaries. The sanctions, it said, are designed to dismantle “Russia’s pernicious spy networks.”

Read more at The Record