The UK is to impose sanctions on 370 more Russian individuals, including more than 50 oligarchs and their families with a combined net worth of £100bn, in the latest raft of measures against Vladimir Putin’s regime, Peter Walker and Jessica Elgot report.
More than 1,000 individuals and entities have now been targeted with sanctions since the invasion of Ukraine, with fresh measures announced against key Kremlin spokespeople and political allies of Putin, including the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, considered a member of his elite inner circle of advisers known as his siloviki.
Other key political figures placed under sanction include the prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, and former president Dmitry Medvedev, as well as Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, and foreign affairs spokesperson, Maria Zakharova .
Oligarchs now subject to UK sanctions include Mikhail Fridman, who co-founded Russian conglomerate Alfa-Group with German Khan, also now subject to sanctions as well as close Putin ally Petr Aven, who was previously head of Russia’s largest commercial bank. The FCO said family members would also be subject to sanctions.
The slew of new sanctions on individual oligarchs and elites, as well as businesses, politicians and organisations came after the passage of the economic crime bill on Monday night, which is intended to make it swifter and easier to target oligarchs and Russian interests.
