Boris Johnson pushing for tough sanctions on Russian army chiefs over Putin’s support for Syria butcher Bashar al-Assad

BORIS Johnson is pushing the world’s leading nations to enforce travel bans and asset freezes on Russian military chiefs for supporting Syria tyrant Bashar al-Assad.

The G7’s foreign ministers met in Italy today to draw up a tough ultimatum for Russia president Vladimir Putin.

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The Foreign Secretary is leading the push for sanctions on the Kremlin’s military bosses, alongside US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The pair held hour long talks yesterday ahead of the summit to map out how to persuade Canada, France, Italy, Germany and Japan.

Revealing the move, Boris insisted Russian generals are now “contaminated by the appalling behaviour of the Assad regime” after the nerve gas attack that killed 100 civilians in Idlib last week.

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As the summit in Lucca began, he added: “If I think about the position of Vladimir Putin now, he’s toxifying the reputation of Russia by his continual association with a guy who has flagrantly poisoned his own people”.

Mr Tillerson will fly to Moscow on Wednesday to deliver the G7’s demand that Russia abandons support for Assad and helps broker an end to the bloody six year-long civil war that has killed 450,000.

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Putin may also be offered the carrot of rejoining the G7 if he agrees, a move he covets after being expelled in 2014 over Ukraine.

The US Secretary of State reinforced America’s new resolve to act against war crimes yesterday.

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While commemorating a 1944 Nazi massacre in Tuscany, Mr Tillerson said: “We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world”.

There are already wide-ranging sanctions in place against Moscow for its annexation of Crimea and actions in Ukraine.

But until now, the West has held back on punishing Russia for its support for Assad.