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UK threatens sanctions on Kremlin-linked companies, people over Ukraine

Monday, 31 January 2022 10:14 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 31 January 2022 10:58 AM ]

A person walks in front of the Russian embassy in London, Britain, on January 23, 2022. (Photo by Reuters)

Britain is set to sanction Kremlin-linked businesses and individuals if Russia moves ahead with any military action against Ukraine, according to a senior British government official.

Simon Clarke, Chief Secretary to the UK Treasury, speaking on the Sky News Monday once again threatened Moscow with sanctions amid heightened tensions between the two sides.

“We are very clear that if Russia takes further action against the Ukraine, then we will further tighten the sanctions regime targeting those businesses and people with the closest links to the Kremlin,” he asserted.

It comes amid growing calls in the West to economically isolate Moscow, which the US and its allies, most notably the UK, accuse of plans to invade or attack neighboring Ukraine.

Amid the showdown, opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin have repeatedly called on the Western countries to get tough on Russian assets.

The development comes as the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Sunday that her government was set to introduce a new legislation this week to broaden the scope of sanctions against Russia.

UK says not ruling out sanctions on Russia's Putin

The UK’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says his country is not ruling out sanctions targeted at Russian President Vladimir Putin in person if Russia invades Ukraine.

Last week, Truss said London was not ruling out personal sanctions against Putin if Russia invades Ukraine, drawing a warning from the Kremlin that such a move would be destructive.

US President Joe Biden has also warned that Moscow would face unprecedented sanctions if it invades Ukraine. He also threatened to impose direct economic sanctions on Putin.

Western powers accuse Russia of amassing troops near the Ukrainian border to invade the country. Moscow rejects the allegations and says the deployments are defensive in nature.

Kremlin officials accuse the West of Russiophobia, saying it has no right to lecture Moscow on how to act after it expanded the NATO military alliance eastwards after the fall of the Soviet Union, and sowed seeds of chaos and mayhem in Iraq and Syria.

Russia has repeatedly reiterated that the expansion of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine is a red line for Moscow and that any future expansion must exclude Ukraine and other former Soviet countries.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this week called on his Western allies to avoid stirring “panic” with their repeated claims that Russia could invade Ukraine at any moment.

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