LONDON: Britain slapped new sanctions on Russia Wednesday over its invasion of Ukraine, targeting two banks and eliminating all Russian oil and coal imports by the end of the year.
The latest UK measures, which came alongside further sanctions by the United States and European Union, also outlaw all new British investment into Russia.
“Today, we are stepping up our campaign to bring (Vladimir) Putin’s appalling war to an end with some of our toughest sanctions yet,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
“Our latest wave of measures will bring an end to the UK’s imports of Russian energy and sanction yet more individuals and businesses, decimating Putin’s war machine,” she said.
Under the new sanctions, Britain froze the overseas assets of Sberbank – Russia’s largest bank – and Credit Bank of Moscow.
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The asset freeze against Sberbank, which was hit by more limited UK sanctions early last month, was taken in concert with Washington.
Britain had previously said it would phase out Russian oil imports.
It now plans to end all imports of Russian coal and oil by the end of the year, and cease natural gas purchases “as soon as possible thereafter”.
Britain is also stopping imports of Russian iron and steel products, and from next week will ban any UK exports to Russia of key oil-refining equipment and catalysts.
London also unveiled new restrictions on Moscow’s ability to acquire British quantum and advanced material technologies.
Eight oligarchs, including Boris Borisovich Rotenberg – the son of a previously sanctioned co-owner of Russia’s largest gas pipeline producer SGM – were also hit with sanctions.
The measures unveiled on both sides of the Atlantic come ahead of G7 foreign ministers meeting Thursday when they are expected to discuss taking further collective action against the Kremlin.
This is set to include debating an accelerated timetable for all G7 countries to end their dependency on Russian energy, according to the UK statement.
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