The Prime Minister of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas, is the Prime Minister of State of Australia sanctioned by Russia. Credit: Getty Images
Malinauskas was the only elected official on the last list, although 228 Australian politicians and officials were expelled from Russia in April, including Anthony Albanese and then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in retaliation for sanctions. of Canberra.
Speaking at the Financial Times hydrogen summit just hours after receiving sanctions from the Kremlin, Forrest said he would carry his sanction as a badge of honor.
Forrest said he does not regret calling Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. “I don’t take it lightly, I take it seriously, but I would tell the other leaders in the room that it’s not worth talking to you unless you’ve been sanctioned.”
He accused Western politicians of “strengthening the Kremlin” by relying on natural gas imports from Russia instead of increasing alternative energy production.
“Natural gas is Putin’s power,” the Western Australian billionaire told the Financial Times Hydrogen Summit on Friday morning (AEST). “Keep buying it and keep supporting the Kremlin.”
Other recently sanctioned business leaders, such as Mike Cannon-Brookes of Atlassian, Rio Tinto CEO Simon Trott, and Seven West Media President Kerry Stokes, have not yet commented on their new status.
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Sydney Morning Herald editor Bevan Shields said that while he did not plan a holiday in Russia soon, the ban could affect other people on the list.
“If the truth about Russian President Vladimir Putin, an accused war criminal, and his brutal invasion of Ukraine carries sanctions, I am sure that journalists will take it as proof that we are doing our job well,” he said. Shields.
Australian correspondent Jacquelin Magnay, who appeared on the list alongside Rob Harris, a European correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, said she “would have been really upset not to have been sanctioned.” .
ABC radio host Patricia Karvelas said waking up at 3:30 a.m. with the news that she was sanctioned was like a “dreamy landscape of hallucinations.”
Other media figures on the sanctions list include Nine CEO Mike Sneesby, News Corp co-chair Lachlan Murdoch, ABC president Ita Buttrose, The Age editor Gay Alcorn, l Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Financial Review, Michael Sutchbury, Herald-Sun columnist Andrew Bolt. , Stan Grant of ABC and Liz Hayes of Nine.
The Herald’s recently sanctioned leading writer, Geoff Winestock, said the list was “just another sign of Putin’s inferiority complex.” Winestock, who lived and worked in Moscow for seven years, said most of the people on the Australian sanctions list had never been to Russia and had no plans to visit it in the future.
“I hope democracy returns to Russia, but I can’t breathe,” Winestock continued.
A spokesman for Nine Entertainment Group said that the sanction of the company’s employees “will not change our journalism and our information about the events that took place in Ukraine”.
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