More than 50 oligarchs and their families, with combined net worth of £100bn, targeted in latest raft of measures
Jessica Elgot, Rowena Mason and Aubrey
Allegretti
Tue 15 Mar 2022 13.15 GMT
The UK is to impose sanctions on 370 more Russian individuals, including more than 50 oligarchs and their families with a combined net worth of £100bn, in the latest raft of measures against Vladimir Putin’s regime.
More than 1,000 individuals and entities have now been targeted with sanctions since the invasion of Ukraine, with fresh measures announced against key Kremlin spokespeople and political allies of Putin, including the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, considered a member of his elite inner circle of advisers known as his siloviki.
The slew of new sanctions on individual oligarchs and elites, as well as businesses, politicians and organisations came after the passage of the economic crime bill on Monday night, which is intended to make it swifter and easier to target oligarchs and Russian interests.
However, parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee suggested on Tuesday that it was only a “first step” towards giving the authorities the “necessary clout and greater powers to ensure the UK is no longer a safe haven for the oligarchy and their enablers”. It highlighted its Russia report sent to the prime minister “together with a detailed classified annex” two years ago with a set of recommendations about how to disrupt illicit money from Russia.
Some of the key political figures targeted with sanctions include the prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, and former president Dmitry Medvedev, as well as Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, and foreign affairs spokesperson, Maria Zakharova .
Oligarchs now subject to UK sanctions include Mikhail Fridman, who co-founded Russian conglomerate Alfa-Group with German Khan, also now subject to UK sanctions.
Sanctions have also been imposed onAlexei Mordashov. The billionaire metals magnate resigned earlier this month from the supervisory board of the world’s largest tourism operator, Tui, after he was hit by EU sanctions.
Another is the close Putin ally Petr Aven, who was previously head of Russia’s largest commercial bank. Both Fridman and Aven were forced to resign earlier this month from their LetterOne investment company, which owns Holland and Barrett, the health food retailer.
Sanctions on the individuals will also apply to family members, the Foreign Office said, though there has been no further clarification of how that will be defined.
Chris Bryant, a Labour MP and chair of the parliamentary group on Russia, said he was mystified why some Russians were still not on the UK’s sanctions list.
Using parliamentary privilege, he said those who should be targeted included Sergei Brilev, a Russian state media TV presenter who was said to have a £700,000 flat in south London as well as a British and Russian passport; Elsina Khayrova, the daughter of a former Russian MP who has a £22m mansion in the UK and a £10m art fund; and the family members of Roman Abramovich.
Bryant added there were several people sanctioned by the EU who the UK had not targeted.
He also suggested the prominent Brexit campaigner Aaron Banks should be sanctioned, saying that it had been claimed he was “an agent of influence for the Russian state”. Banks has denied the allegations.
All of those named by the UK on Tuesday had already been placed under sanctions by the US, EU, Canada or Australia, which meant the UK could use new mirroring provisions of the act that received royal assent overnight.
The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said: “We are going further and faster than ever in hitting those closest to Putin – from major oligarchs, to his prime minister, and the propagandists who peddle his lies and disinformation. We are holding them to account for their complicity in Russia’s crimes in Ukraine.”
Individuals subject to sanctions will have their assets in the UK frozen and be banned from travelling to or from the UK.
Truss is said to be drawing up a list of further individuals to be sanctioned in the coming weeks. A Foreign Office source said diplomatic efforts would also be made to bring about a full ban from Russian entities using the Swift banking payment system.
“This is by no means over,” the official said, but suggested it would act as a retort to those who had claimed the UK was dragging its heels. “We have also gone further in asset freezing of banks than our allies.”
The official said it was the first time family members had been included in the sanctions and was a significant symbolic move to show that the UK would not tolerate the transfer of assets, but said it was unlikely to apply initially to wider extended family.
The UK is also to ban the export of luxury products to Russia including fashion and valuable artworks, as well as raising tariffs on key Russian products including vodka and fur, as part of the latest sanctions measures.
Following a similar move in Washington, the UK is to deny Russia and Belarus access to “most favoured nation” tariffs for hundreds of their exports – a key benefit of World Trade Organization membership.
The government said £900m-worth of goods would be subject to huge additional tariffs as a fresh barrier to trade with Russia, coming into force next week.
Among the initial list of Russian goods facing additional 35% tariffs are Russian fur, vodka and other spirits, white fish, as well as industrial products such as fertilisers, tyres and cement.
The export ban will include luxury vehicles, high-end fashion and works of art going from the UK to Russia. The Treasury said it would also no longer issue any new guarantees, loans or insurance for exports to Russia and Belarus.
It said that without government export credit support, any financial backing from the private sector to the region was “virtually impossible”.
The Department for International Trade said 54 licences for exports to Russia had already been voluntarily surrendered by UK businesses.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/mar/15/uk-imposes-sanctions-on-russian-products-and-bans-some-exports
Ukraine war: UK announces sanctions against 370 more
Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities
Since Vladimir Putin
launched his invasion of Ukraine, the UK has sanctioned more than 1,000 of
Russia and Belarus' most significant and high-value individuals, entities, and
subsidiaries.
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