After President Vladimir Putin’s recognition of the pro-Russian separatist republics in the Donbass on Monday, February 21, the first package of British sanctions against Russia had only aroused criticism: it was considered too lukewarm, targeting only second-tier banks. order and only three oligarchs – out of dozens who have chosen London as the most welcoming capital to hide their ill-gotten fortunes.
Thursday, February 24, a few hours after the start of the first Russian strikes in Ukraine, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a more substantial package of measures against Moscow and its ally, Belarus. This is the sanctions package “the most punitive ever imposed by the United Kingdom”, announced the British leader, emphasizing that it was intended to transform the “Putin’s diet”, qualified “a bloodthirsty aggressor who believes in imperial conquests”, in “outcast” on the international scene.
The assets of major Russian banks in the UK are frozen with immediate effect. From 1er March, they will also no longer have access to the debt markets in the City, the second largest financial center in the world. This ban on access to debt markets (or equity markets) will also apply to the Russian state and “all Russian public companies or key private companies” for the Putin regime (in the defense sector in particular). VTB, the second largest Russian bank, and the defense giant Rostec are thus targeted.
Some 120 companies and oligarchs are also targeted: their assets in the United Kingdom are frozen, they are prohibited from staying in their country. Five relatives of Putin are particularly concerned, including Kirill Shamalov, the ex-husband of his daughter Katarina, Denis Bortnikov, the deputy president of the VTB bank and son of the head of the FSB (the Russian security services) Alexander Bortnikov or even Elena Aleksandrovna Georgieva, chairman of the board of defense conglomerate Novikombank.
A law against “economic crime”
“These people have a cosmopolitan lifestyle, they come to shop at Harrod’s, they stay in our best hotels, they send their children to our best private schools, this is all going to stop, the sanctions are really going to hurt” , spoints out a diplomatic source. London will also limit exports to Russia of sensitive products (electronics, oil and aerospace equipment) and ban the airline Aeroflot from British airspace.
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