Britain has sanctioned hundreds of Russian parliamentarians as the government seeks to further “tighten the screw” on President Vladimir Putin’s regime over the invasion of Ukraine.
The government said on Friday that 386 members of the Duma—the lower house of the Russian parliament—are being banned from travelling to the UK and any assets they have in the country will be frozen.
They have been sanctioned for voting in February to recognise the independence of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in Eastern Ukraine and authorise the permanent presence of Russian military there, the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) said.
Announcing the decision, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: “We’re targeting those complicit in Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and those who support this barbaric war. We will not let up the pressure and will continue to tighten the screw on the Russian economy through sanctions.
“Together with our allies, we stand firmly beside our Ukrainian friends. We will continue to support Ukraine with humanitarian aid, defensive weapons, and diplomatic work to isolate Russia internationally.”
This follows the government’s announcement on Thursday that seven Russian Oligarchs, including Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, had been hit with UK travel bans and asset freezes over their close links to Putin.
Since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24, the UK has sanctioned 18 of Russia’s leading oligarchs with a combined worth in excess of £30 billion ($39 billion), the FCDO said.
Altogether, the UK has sanctioned more than 500 of Russia’s most significant and high-value individuals, entities, and subsidiaries.
In a speech in Washington on Thursday, Truss said Western allies needed to continue to do more—including freezing all Russian banking assets and excluding Russia completely from the SWIFT global payments system.
“We want a situation where they can’t access their funds, they can’t clear their payments, their trade can’t flow, their ships can’t dock, and their planes can’t land,” she said.
Russia has been hit with crippling sanctions that threaten to cast the country into its gravest crisis since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
More than 2 million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion began two weeks ago, with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg describing the situation as “Europe’s fastest-growing refugee crisis since the Second World War.”
