The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has approved sanctions against five Russian banks: Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank.
The banks, according to a Reuters’ report, have close links to Vladimir Putin who recently ordered troops to two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
Britain has also sanctioned three “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,” Johnson said.
“This is the first tranche; the first barrage of what we are prepared to do and we hold further sanctions at readiness to be deployed. We want to stop Russian companies from being able to raise funds in sterling or indeed in dollars,” Johnson said.
Meanwhile, Boris had come under criticism as many British lawmakers urged him to be tougher on Russian money, even demanding that Russian oligarchs be ejected from Britain and Russian money be dug out of the City of London.
