THUR 10 MARCH, 2022-theGBJournal- UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss today announced a full asset freeze and travel ban on seven of Russia’s wealthiest and most influential oligarchs, whose business empires, wealth and connections are closely associated with the Kremlin.
Liz Truss said today’s sanctions show once again that oligarchs and kleptocrats have no place in our economy or society.
‘’As part of the UK’s leading efforts to isolate Putin and those around him, these oligarchs – who have a collective net worth of around £15 billion – will have their assets in the UK frozen, they are banned from travelling here and no UK citizen or company may do business with them,’’ Liz Truss said in a statement.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there can be no safe havens for those who have supported Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine.
‘’ Today’s sanctions are the latest step in the UK’s unwavering support for the Ukrainian people. We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies,’’ Johnson said.
Those newly-sanctioned by the UK include Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club, and has stakes in steel giant Evraz and Norilsk Nickel worth more than £9 billion; leading industrialist Oleg Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group worth £2 billion, and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin. A further group of Russia-based oligarchs close to Putin placed under sanction are Igor Sechin the Chief Executive of Rosneft, Andrey Kostin Chairman of VTB bank, Alexei Miller CEO of energy company Gazprom, Nikolai Tokarev president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft and Dmitri Lebedev Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Rossiya.
The UK government said these sanctions are the latest step in the UK’s response to Putin’s illegal and unprovoked invasion, designed to ensure he fails in Ukraine by crippling Russia’s economy supporting his war machine.
The UK has been at the forefront of this effort, shutting out large proportions of whole sectors of the Russian economy, such as its defence industry, its financial institutions and its transport sector. The UK has already sanctioned more than 200 of Russia’s most significant and high-value individuals, entities and subsidiaries since the invasion, with over 500 of them now covered by the UK’s sanctions list.
The UK government says it is now planning an Economic Crime Bill which is expected to come into force next week which it says, will also significantly simplify the process of imposing sanctions, allow the UK to more easily sanction individuals, stop oligarchs threatening the UK with multi-million pound lawsuits for damages at the taxpayer’s expense and also allow the UK to mirror allies’ designations.
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