UK freezes $20.5bn worth of Russian assets
The United Kingdom says it has frozen assets worth 18 billion pounds ($20.5bn) purportedly owned by Russian oligarchs, and other individuals and entities subjected to sanctions by London over the Russian offensive against Ukraine.
"We have imposed the most severe sanctions ever on Russia and it is crippling their war machine," Andrew Griffith, a junior government minister in the UK Treasury, said on Thursday. "Our message is clear: We will not allow [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to succeed in this brutal war."
According to Griffith, the newly frozen Russian assets were six billion pounds more than the amount reported across all other British sanctions regimes.
Western countries, including the United States and the UK, have slapped unprecedented sanctions on Russia since February 24, when Putin announced "a special military operation" in neighboring Ukraine on February 24 to "de-Nazify" the ex-Soviet republic.
So far, London has imposed sanctions against over 1,200 people and more than 120 entities in Russia, including businessmen, firms, and politicians.
Shortly after the onset of the war in Ukraine, the British government began imposing travel bans, asset freezes, and other sanctions on Russian individuals and entities.
The British sanctions have targeted Russia's major banks, including Sberbank, and Credit Bank of Moscow. The UK has also banned any new investment in the Russian Federation.
The Kremlin has said punitive measures against Moscow by the US and its allies and the shipping of weapons by them to Ukraine will prolong the war.
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