Both the United Kingdom and the European Union joined the Biden administration today in announcing new sanctions on Russia as punishment for its actions in declaring the independence of the people’s republics of Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) in Ukraine. They threatened that worse sanctions would be forthcoming, if Russia doesn’t improve its “behavior.” Prime Minister Boris Johnson went before an emergency session of the House of Commons to bombastically declare, in his best Winston Churchill imitation, that “we will never waver” in imposing the toughest sanctions possible on Russia, given that Vladimir Putin has deployed his armed forces in what is a “renewed invasion of Ukraine. We must steel ourselves for a protracted crisis. The United Kingdom will meet this challenge side by side with our allies, determined that we will not allow Putin to drag our continent back into a Hobbesian state of nature where aggression pays and might is right,” The Independent reported him saying.
Johnson announced that sanctions will be imposed on Putin’s “inner circle,” affecting five Russian banks (Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank) and three “wealthy individuals,” (Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg, and Igor Rotenberg, who will be subject to travel bans and asset seizure.) Timchenko and the Rottenbergs are described as billionaires and confidants of Putin’s who are “bankrolling the occupation,” and are already on a U.S. sanctions list. Apparently during the same session, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss promised, [W]e are prepared to go much further if Russia does not pull back from the brink. We will curtail the ability of the Russian state and Russian companies to raise funds in our markets, prohibit a range of high-tech exports, and further isolate Russian banks from the global economy.”
