Canada on Friday imposed sanctions on 38 individuals and 16 entities it said were "complicit in peddling Russian disinformation and propaganda", prompting a quick promise of retaliation from Moscow.
The targeted individuals and entities include Russian state-owned media group MIA Rossiya Segodnya and singer Nikolai Baskov, who performed in a pro-war concert in Moscow, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine is based on lies and deception. Russian disinformation operations have enlisted celebrities and so-called news organizations to echo the Kremlin's talking points and attempt to justify the atrocities happening across Ukraine," it said.
Canada, one of the most vocal international supporters of Ukraine, has imposed sanctions on almost 4,000 people and entities from and in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus since 2014.
Oleg Stepanov, Russia's ambassador to Canada, said Moscow would react to the sanctions in a reciprocal fashion.
"We will respond to every unfriendly action from the current Canadian authorities, which we look upon with regret," he told Russia's RIA news agency.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Leslie Adler and Marguerita Choy)
