Britain on Sanctions slapped on Tuesday on five Russian banks and three men including Gennady Timchenko, who have close ties to Vladimir Putin after Kremlin chief ordered deployment of troops in two breakaway regions in Eastern Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said Russia is heading for “pariah status” and the world must now prepare for the next stage of Putin’s plan, saying the Kremlin was preparing the ground for a full-climb invasion of Ukraine.
Britain has threatened to cut off Russian companies » access in US dollars and British pounds, preventing them from raising capital in London and exhibit what Johnson calls the “Russian doll” of property and business ownership.
Johnson told parliament that five banks – Rossiya, IS Bank, GenBank, Promsvyazbank and Black Sea Bank – were being sanctioned, along with with Three people – Timchenko, Igor Rotenberg and Boris Rotenberg.
“It’s the first slice, the first barrage of what we are prepared to do,” Johnson said. assets they hold in the UK will be frozen and individuals concerned will be banned from traveling here,” Johnson said. of sanctioned individuals.
Some UK lawmakers have called on Johnson to be tougher on Russian money even demanding that Russian oligarchs be kicked out of Britain and Russia money be dug out of the city of London.
Hundreds of Billions of dollars flowed into London and Britain overseas territories of Russia since the fall of Soviet Union in 1991, and London became the Western city of choice for the super-rich of Russia and others former Soviet republics.
Britain said that Timchenko, one of The founders of Gunvor trading company, was one of the main shareholders in Bank Rossiya, itself a stakeholder in National Media Group which supported the destabilization of Ukraine after the annexation of Russia in 2014 of Crimea.
“Bank Rossiya supported the consolidation of Crimea in the Russian Federation by integrating the financial system following the annexation of Crimea,” Britain said.
Timchenko, who Forbes says East worth £23.5bn ($31.8bn), is a close ally of Russian President Putin, as did the Rotenbergs, Johnson said.
“Boris Rotenberg… is a prominent Russian businessman with close personal ties with (the) Russian president,” Britain said. “Igor Rotenberg is a prominent Russian businessman. with close family ties to President Putin.”
The US Treasury has also sanctioned the Rotenbergs as billionaires who to have made fortune under Putin.
The once mighty superpower of Russia economy is now smaller than the one based in Italy on Money Fund Data international (IMF), with a nominal GDP of approximately $1.7 trillion.
