UK announces new sanctions against Russia

On Thursday, February 22, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron announced more than 50 new sanctions targeting individuals and businesses sustaining Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine.

The relevant statement was published on the UK Government website.

Sanctions have been imposed against those supplying his depleted armoury with munitions such as rocket launch systems, missiles and explosives.  These new sanctions also target key sources of Russian revenue, clamping down on metals, diamonds, and energy trade, and cutting off funding for Putin’s illegal war from every angle.    

“Ukraine has shown that it can and will defend itself. Putin mistakenly thought that because Russia’s economy is bigger than Ukraine’s, he would gain a quick victory. But the economies of Ukraine’s friends are 25 times bigger than Russia’s. And two years on, we stand united in support for Ukraine. Our international economic pressure means Russia cannot afford this illegal invasion. Our sanctions are starving Putin of the resources he desperately needs to fund his struggling war,” Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a statement.

According to him, the announced sanctions will “disrupt Putin’s ability to equip his now struggling military with high tech equipment and much needed weaponry, as well as blocking him from refilling his war coffers- while Ukraine defends itself.”  

It is stressed that this package forms part of wider UK action to restrict Putin’s war revenue streams and clamp down on his repeated attempts to evade western sanctions.

As noted, new sanctions have been imposed against Russia's largest munitions and electronics manufacturers, companies that produce and trade diamonds and oil, as well as Chinese, Turkish and Belarusian companies that have contributed to the development of the Russian military-industrial complex.

They include Sverdlov State Owned Enterprise, the largest enterprise in the Russian ammunition industry; key Russian importers and manufacturers of machine tools; oil trader Niels Troost and his company Paramount Energy & Commodities SA; Fractal Marine DMCC, Beks Ship Management, and Active Shipping, which operate in the Russian energy sector as part of Putin’s shadow fleet; two Russian diamond companies and Pavel Alekseevich Marinychev, the new CEO of Alrosa, as well as five senior executives or owners.

The list also includes Arctic LNG 2 and its director, Oleg Vyacheslavovich Karpushin. This is one of the key links in Putin’s plan to make Russia a major LNG player 

In addition, sanctions have been imposed against the so-called PMC Redut.

As Ukrinform reported, on Wednesday, February 21, the British government sanctioned six individuals heading up the penal colony where Alexei Navalny died.