Sanctions

We are making sure President Putin feels the full cost of his actions:

• Alongside our allies, we are imposing the largest and most severe package of sanctions that Russia has ever seen. These sanctions deal a severe blow to the Russian economy, hobbling Russia’s military- industrial complex, and personally damaging Putin’s inner circle of corrupt oligarchs.

• £900m of imports from Russia and Belarus will now face an additional 35% tariff (tax), on top of current tariffs. The UK is banning exports of luxury goods to Russia and Belarus and the UK is stopping all government-backed export finance to Russia and Belarus. More information HERE.

• We are sanctioning 386 members of the Russian Duma – targeting those who supported Putin’s barbaric war. We sanctioned 386 members of the Russian Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, who voted to recognise the independence of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions – part of Ukrainian sovereign territory - and authorised the permanent presence of Russian military there, punishing those who provided a false pretext for Russia’s invasion.

• We are sanctioning eighteen leading oligarchs worth more than £30 billion, making clear that there will be no safe haven for those who have supported Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine. On 10 March 2022 we sanctioned seven more Russian oligarchs with a collective net worth of around £15 billion, bringing the total number of oligarchs sanctioned to 18 with a combined worth of over £30 billion – we are freezing their assets, banning them from travelling here and barring any UK citizen or company from doing business with them.

• We sanctioned more than 500 of Russia’s most significant and high-value individuals since Putin’s invasion, worth hundreds of billions of pounds. Since Russia’s invasion, the UK has sanctioned more than 500 of Russia’s most significant and high-value individuals, entities and subsidiaries, bringing the total now covered by the UK’s sanctions list to over 800.

• We are phasing out all imports of Russian oil and oil products by the end of the year, cutting off a key source of funding for Putin’s regime while limiting the impact on consumers. We are phasing out all imports of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022, which currently supply 8 per cent of UK demand – giving businesses enough time to ensure a smooth transition so that consumers will not be affected and working with them this year to secure further supplies.

• We are sanctioning Vladimir Putin himself and his inner circle, including Sergey Lavrov, hitting the Kremlin regime at its heart. They will be hit with an assets freeze and blocked from any future business in the UK.

• We have frozen £258 billion in Russian bank assets – more than any other country as we work together with our allies to implement crushing sanctions. The UK is working together with our allies to freeze Russian bank assets. We have so far frozen a total of £258.8 billion of Russian bank assets, with £240 billion frozen by the US and £33.8 billion by the EU, as we work together to make Putin feel economic pain.

• We will starve the Russian state of its access to finance, preventing Putin from raising money to support his unprovoked aggression. We will stop the Russian state from being able to borrow in UK markets and issue sovereign debt; block the ability of major Russian banks to operate in sterling around the world with a prohibition on clearing payments in sterling; and we will limit the amount of money Russian nationals can deposit in their UK bank accounts.

• We are banning key technical goods and technologies from being exported to Russia. We will no longer approve licences for the export of dual-use goods and have banned the export of a range of high-end and critical technical equipment and components.

• We are working in lock step with allies to exclude Russian banks from the SWIFT financial system. We are ensuring that selected Russian banks are removed from the SWIFT messaging system, ensuring they are disconnected from the international financial system and harming their ability to operate globally.

• We are targeting the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, continuing to apply the most severe economic sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion. This action is taken in concert with the US and the EU, to prevent CBR from deploying its foreign reserves in ways that undermine the impact of sanctions.

• We imposed sanctions on Belarus for aiding and abetting Russia’s illegal invasion – making sure the Lukashenko regime feels the economic consequences of its support for Putin. In this first tranche of sanctions on Belarus for their support of Putin’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine, four senior defence officials and 2 military enterprises have been sanctioned with immediate effect – building on the sanctions we already placed on more than 100 people and organisations in Belarus after Lukashenko’s fraudulent elections and human rights abuses.

• We banned all Russia-linked vessels from entering UK ports. The ban includes any vessels owned or operated by anyone connected to Russia and authorities will also gain new powers to detain Russian vessels.

• We made it a criminal offence for any Russian-linked planes to enter UK airspace or land in the UK, inflicting more economic pain on Russia and those close to the Kremlin. New legislation laid has made it a criminal offence for any aircraft owned, operated or chartered by anyone connected with Russia or sanctioned individuals or entities to enter UK airspace or land in the UK, and will also include the power to detain any aircraft owned by persons connected with Russia.

• We are preventing UK exports of aviation or space-related items to Russia and blocking Russian aviation companies from accessing our world-leading insurance market. New measures to block aviation or space-related exports have been laid into legislation, further tightening the growing economic pressure on Russia and limiting the benefits that Russian entities receive from their access to the global insurance and reinsurance market.

• We are exploring options to end the UK’s imports of Russian gas while we accelerate our move towards renewable energy, in line with action taken by our international allies. We are not reliant on Russian gas as we currently import only four per cent of our gas from Russia, but the Kremlin is the largest exporter and controls the market – which is why we are focusing on generating cheaper, cleaner renewable and nuclear power and exploring options to end these imports.

• We are calling on UK firms to stop all new investments in Russia, as we step up efforts to inflict maximum economic pain on Putin’s regime. The Chancellor has called on firms to reconsider current investments in Russia and stop all new investments, meeting with asset managers and business owners last week to discuss the need to economically isolate Putin and his regime.

• We are intensifying sanctions enforcement, with new powers for law enforcement and a specialised Kleptocracy unit to crack down on companies that breach sanctions rules. We are establishing a new Kleptocracy cell based in the National Crime Agency to catch and punish those who breach sanctions rules and bringing forward new powers to make it easier for law enforcement to punish more companies and name and shame those who breach sanctions.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
• We have announced 14 new sanctions on Russian propagandists, state media outlets, and military leaders. The Foreign Secretary announced this new wave of sanctions on military leaders in wake of the appalling shelling of Mariupol, and further sanctions on propogandists and Kremlin-funded owners of RT, ensuring this vehicle of Russian state propaganda never finds its way back onto UK television. More information on this new wave of sanctions can be found HERE.                                                                                                                                                                                           
• We have banned imports of certain irons, as well as the export of oil refining goods, quantum and advanced materials, and luxury goods. Our package will continue to signal to Russia and the wider international community that Russian territorial expansionism is unacceptable and will be met with a serious response. We will continue to target Russian elites and take measures to deprive Putin’s war machine of the resources it needs. More information about the new sanctions can be found HERE.                                                                                                                                                                                        
• We have announced that we are banning all imports of Russian gold, as we ratchet up pressure on Putin's war machine. All imports of Russian gold to the UK which will cover over £13.5 billion of our imports from Russia, alongside bans by the USA, Canada and Japan that will isolate Russia from the global gold market. By taking these measure alongside our allies, we are maximising the impact that we can have on Putin and his cronies and striking at the heart of his barbaric war machine.