“This is the first installment, the first barrage, of what we’re willing to do,” said Boris Johnson.
London:
Britain on Tuesday imposed sanctions on five Russian banks and three billionaires in what Prime Minister Boris Johnson called “the first barrage” of measures in response to the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine.
Addressing British parliament hours after Russia ordered troops into two Moscow-backed Ukrainian rebel regions, Johnson described it as “a renewed invasion” of its western neighbor and “pretext for a large-scale offensive”.
“The UK and our allies will begin to impose sanctions on Russia that we have already prepared… to punish Russian individuals and entities strategically important to the Kremlin,” he told MPs.
The British leader said further sanctions are “ready to be deployed” if the Kremlin showed further aggression in what he predicted would be “a protracted crisis”.
The five targeted banks – Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank – and three sanctioned individuals will see all UK assets frozen
The individuals involved — Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg and Igor Rotenberg — are not allowed to travel to the UK and all UK individuals and entities are prohibited from doing business with them and the banks.
“We cannot say what will happen in the coming days,” Johnson added in the House of Commons amid a cross-party condemnation of Moscow’s actions.
“But… we have to arm ourselves against a protracted crisis.”
The announcement of the sanctions came after Johnson chaired an early morning meeting with security chiefs, after which he vowed to hit Russia “very hard”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday recognized the independence of the rebel-held regions of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk and ordered the Defense Ministry to “take on the role of peacekeeping” in the separatist-controlled regions.
The foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it had no plans to send troops to other parts of eastern Ukraine outside the separatist areas for the time being.
Monday’s action, however, sparked weeks of tension and Western diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the situation, following a massive build-up of troops on the border with Ukraine.
Britain’s relations with the Kremlin have been frosty since the radiation poisoning of a former Russian spy in London in 2006 and the attempted murder of another double agent in the southwestern city of Salisbury in 2018.
Successive governments in London, however, have faced continued pressure since the fall of the Soviet Union to crack down on illegal Russian money circulating in the city’s financial markets.
Johnson’s spokesman said earlier Tuesday that the Russian ambassador to London had been summoned to talks on Ukraine by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.
