(OTTAWA) Canada announced Friday that it is imposing a new round of sanctions on Russian media figures and companies accused of spreading misinformation about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly announced the latest sanctions against 38 people and 16 entities, saying these groups and individuals were spreading the lies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Among those added to Canada’s blacklist are several Russian singers, including former contestants of the popular Eurovision Song Contest, as well as actors and athletes.
The list also includes one of Russia’s largest public media groups, Rossiya Segodnya MIA, which owns and operates a large number of Russian-language businesses.
Many of the newest additions had already been sanctioned by Canada’s allies after Russia invaded Ukraine nearly a year ago.
The new measures come amid questions about the effectiveness of Canada’s sanctions regime.
The Canadian Press reported this week that as of June 7, Canada had ordered the freezing of assets of 123 million in Canada and 289 million transactions had been blocked under the bans linked to Russia.
But at the end of December, the RCMP said only 122 million assets were listed as seized and 292 million transactions had been blocked despite adding hundreds more people associated with Russia to the sanctions list.
The police force did not explain why the amounts declared by the financial institutions had not changed much during this period.