Russian foreign minister’s step-daughter among victims of sanctions imposed by UK
The Russian Foreign Minister’s stepdaughter is among sixty-five new people who have been sanctioned by the United Kingdom in a move the Foreign Office said was designed to target “key strategic industries and individuals” as the war in Ukraine entered its second month.
Organisations are also among those hit by the sanction which includes six banks and a defence company that produces drones, as well as the Wagner Group which Britain said had reportedly been tasked with assassinating the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The “mayor” of Melitopol, a region in south-eastern Ukraine currently under Russian military occupation, also faced sanctions for “collaboration” with the invading forces, in the first announcement of its kind.
Other individuals who had their UK assets frozen included the billionaire oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler, who has close links to Roman Abramovich; Herman Gref, and the chief executive of Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank.
The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said all were “complicit in the murder of innocent civilians” and should “pay the price”.
She added: “Putin should be under no illusions – we are united with our allies and will keep tightening the screw on the Russian economy to help ensure he fails in Ukraine. There will be no let-up.”
The sanctions, which were also imposed on Alrosa, the world’s largest diamond producer, will ban all those targeted from traveling to or from the UK and freezes their assets based in the country indefinitely.
Despite four weeks passing since Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, ordered the invasion of Ukraine, Truss is understood to want to keep tightening the vice around those with links to the Kremlin.
The move came while she and the prime minister, Boris Johnson, joined Nato and G7 summits in Brussels.
While the total number of people and businesses facing sanctions is now more than 1,000, government insiders have privately admitted the UK initially moved too slow to stop some oligarchs from transferring their wealth and assets out of the country before they were targeted.
