British authorities are trying to persuade European countries to tighten restrictive measures against the Russian Federation. Following the example of the United States, the United Kingdom intended to blacklist the high-ranking directors of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (formerly GRU). The main lobbyist for this idea is British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.. He urges colleagues from Germany and France to support his initiative, reports The Times, citing diplomatic sources. "It is necessary for the ministers of foreign affairs and other countries to approve the freezing of assets and the travel ban for these high-ranking Russian spies for several weeks," the publication said.. It is also reported that in October, Hunt discussed the prospects for expanding anti-Russian sanctions with the foreign ministers of Eastern European countries, including Hungary. Sanctions may be imposed within the framework of the EU-agreed regime of restrictive measures against countries using chemical weapons. They should touch the "half-dozen" of persons who, according to the London version, are involved in the poisoning of the Russian defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia..

The final list of defendants is expected to be published in December..

Perhaps it will be the first official confirmation of the personalities of the two main suspects in the direct execution of the attempt on Skripale. The alleged perpetrators of the crime appear in British documents as citizens of the Russian Federation, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, who are allegedly employees of the GRU. In the investigation of the Bellingcat group it is stated that under these names are hiding military intelligence officers, Heroes of Russia Mishkin and Chepiga. In addition to Petrov and Boshirov, they are expected to be included in the sanctions list of their direct supervisors - the leaders of the GRU. "You must have a system that includes a chain of military and political leaders who are responsible, up to the top leadership. Otherwise, you will receive a system in which subordinates will respond instead of superiors..

No one talks about the actual involvement of heads of state in court, but if you do not have senior military officials and their supervisors in political leadership, such a system is not credible, "Bob Sealy, member of the foreign affairs committee of the House of Representatives, told British journalists.. Earlier, the leaders of the Russian military intelligence were included in the US sanctions lists. Among them - the head of special services Igor Korobov, his first deputies Igor Kostyukov and Vladimir Alekseev, as well as the deputy Sergey Gizunov. In addition to them, restrictions were imposed on 12 alleged GRU officers, whom the US Department of Justice accused of hacking into the servers of the US Democratic Party in the summer of 2016.