UK announces sanctions against 370 more Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities

The UK government has announced sanctions against a further 370 Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UK has sanctioned more than 1,000 of Russia and Belarus’ most significant and high-value individuals, entities, and subsidiaries.

The Foreign Office said the new additions to the UK government’s sanction list include Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “key political allies, regime spokespeople and Kremlin-backed disinformation agencies”.

A total of 51 of those sanctioned on Tuesday are oligarchs and their family members who have a combined estimated worth of more than £100 billion.

The Foreign Office said the UK will “continue to tighten the screw on the Russian economy in the coming days” as ministers make full use of powers “necessary to tackle the biggest security crisis in Europe since World War II”.

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Those added to the list on Tuesday include:

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• Sergei Shoigu, a Russian politician and General of the Army

• Dmitry Medvede, former PM and president of Russia and now deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia

• Mikhail Fridman, a founder of Alfa Bank, the largest non-state controlled bank in Russia

• Petr Aven, the head of Alfa Bank until March 2022

• Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary

• Maya Bolotova, the daughter of Nikolai Tokarev, president of the Russian pipeline company Transneft.

• German Khan, one of the original founders of Alfa Group Consortium

• Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Affairs spokeswoman

• Alexey Mordaschov, a member of Russia’s richest family.

• Alexander Ponomarenko, chairman of the board of Sheremetyevo, the biggest airport in Russia

• Andrey Melnichenko, the founder of EuroChem Group, one of the world’s leading mineral fertilizer producers

• Viktor Vekselberg, owner of the Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate with interests in aluminium, oil, energy and telecoms

• Dmitry Pumpyansky, owner and chairman of OAO TMK, a leading global manufacturer and supplier of steel pipes for the oil and gas industry

• Vadim Moshkovich, chairman of the board of directors of Rusagro Group, the second leading Russian producer of beet sugar

• Mikhail Mishustin, a Russian politician and the current Prime Minister of Russia

• The Internet Research Agency, a notorious internet ‘troll farm’

Those individuals sanctioned today will have their assets in the UK frozen which means no UK citizen or company can do business with them and they are also banned from travelling to or from the UK.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the UK is 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,” she said.

“We are holding them to account for their complicity in Russia’s crimes in Ukraine.

“Working closely with our allies, we will keep increasing the pressure on Putin and cut off funding for the Russian war machine.”

New laws to tackle “dirty money” in the UK were fast-tracked through parliament in a bid to target Russian elites.

The Economic Crime Bill received Royal Assent in the early hours of Tuesday, after the Houses of Parliament sat beyond midnight to ensure the measures became law.

It will establish a new register of overseas entities, requiring foreign owners of property in the UK to declare their true identity.

The register would need to be updated each year and punishments for failing to declare details, or submitting false information, would result in the asset being frozen – and it cannot be sold or rented out.

The new sanctions come less than 24 hours since the legislation was enacted.

The Foreign Office said the vast majority of today’s sanctions were made possible due to the Act which has given ministers “new powers to act in the public interest and immediately designate individuals and entities under an urgent procedure while evidence is gathered to sanction them under our own standard procedure”.

Yesterday, EU member states agreed on a fourth package of sanctions against Russia, which the office of the French EU presidency said would revoke the country’s “most-favoured nation” trade status.

Earlier today, the government placed an export ban on luxury goods to Russia and hiked up import tariffs from the country on iconic products such as vodka as the West continues to attempt to isolate the country.

On Friday, the government sanctioned 386 additional members of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, for their support for the Ukrainian breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Outgoing owner of Chelsea Football Club Roman Abramovich was one of seven more Russian oligarchs sanctioned the day before.

The move froze froze the 55-year-old billionaire’s planned sale of Chelsea, with the Stamford Bridge club given a special licence to continue operation, but under limited terms.

In a statement on Tuesday, Chelsea said they are “disappointed to announce we will not be able to sell tickets for Saturday’s FA cup tie at Middlesbrough” after discussions with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI).

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