Russia bans top UK politicians over mean words

LONDON — Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was one of many top U.K. politicians who were banned from entering Russia Tuesday, as Moscow continued its tit-for-tat diplomatic feud with London and accused senior Labour figures of “Russophobic” leanings.

Rayner joins 15 other ministers, including Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, among the 30 figures added to the Kremlin’s latest “stop list.” The move prevents them from traveling to the country.

Other Labour big-hitters on the Russian government’s naughty list include Health Secretary Wes Streeting — an unlikely candidate to make it to Russia given his brief — and Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden, who laid into Russia Monday over its cyber-warfare tactics.

Times journalist Tom Ball and the Daily Mail’s Dan Woodland also found themselves on the list, alongside a string of entrepreneurs.

In a lengthy statement, the Russian foreign ministry said it had been “once again forced to draw attention to the incessant aggressive anti-Russian rhetoric of the British authorities,” as well as to “the illegitimate unilateral restrictions systematically introduced by London against our country.” The ministry also called out the U.K. for its “thoughtless policy” of supporting Ukraine in its “senseless” resistance to Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of the country.

But there was more: “Russophobic policies, which combine attempts to discredit Russia’s actions and isolate it in the international arena, the dissemination of disinformation about our country, including in the context of a special military operation, coupled with military support for the Ukrainian armed forces, bordering on the direct involvement of Great Britain in the conflict with all the accompanying escalation risks, indicate London’s attitude towards further systemic confrontation with respect to Russia.”

The flood of words came after Russia expelled a British diplomat it had accused of espionage Tuesday.

In an accusation branded “baseless” by the British government, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed a senior British diplomat at the Moscow embassy was guilty of “deliberately giving false information in obtaining an entry permit to our country, thereby violating Russian law.”