Boris announces Russian sanctions on five banks and three high-profile individuals – assets frozen, travel bans and all UK individuals will be prevented with having any dealings with them:
“Today, the UK is sanctioning the following four five Russian banks: Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank. And we are sanctioning three very high net worth individuals: Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg, and Igor Rotenberg.
Any assets they hold in the UK will be frozen, the individuals concerned will be banned from travelling here, and we will prohibit all UK individuals and entities from having any dealings with them.
This is the first tranche, the first barrage, of what we are prepared to do: we will hold further sanctions at readiness, to be deployed alongside the United States and the European Union if the situation escalates still further.”
Sir Keir followed up with six demands to go further:
Keir Starmer backs UK approach but calls for more action
— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) February 22, 2022
— excluding Russia from Swift payments
— ban trading in Russian sovereign debt
— ban Russia Today
— stop flow of illicit Russian money into UK
— ensure money laundering laws are enforced
— end Russian money in UK politics
On point three, a DCSM source points out to Guido it’s up to Ofcom…
UPDATE: Truss has another sanction up her sleeve, just announced by the FCDO:
“The UK will also sanction those members of the Russian Duma and Federation Council who voted to recognise the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk in flagrant violation of Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty.
In addition, over the coming weeks we will extend the territorial sanctions imposed on Crimea to non-Government controlled territory in the so-called breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. No UK individual or business will be able to deal with this territory until it is returned to Ukrainian control.
In the event of further aggressive acts by Russia against Ukraine, we have prepared an unprecedented package of further sanctions ready to go. These include a wide ranging set of measures targeting the Russian financial sector, and trade.”
