The UK government has followed suit with the US and EU in its sanctions against Russia, by banning British people and business from making transactions with its central bank, finance ministry and wealth fund.
The UK government has said that the move will “devastate” the Russian economy, while chancellor Rishi Sunak declared that the package of sanctions would help “cut [Russia] off from the international financial system as long as this conflict [in Ukraine] persists”.
Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, said that the Bank would continue “to take any and all actions needed to support the government’s response” to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin is set to hold an urgent meeting with economic advisers on Monday following the move.
Since Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine, the value of the Russian rouble has plummeted and the country’s central bank has doubled interest rates to 20 per cent.
A spokesperson for the Kremlin called the Western sanctions “hard” but maintained that Russia had the “necessary potential to compensate” for the economic damage.
Under the new wave of sanctions announced over the weekend, Russia’s central bank will be unable to sell its $630 billion of reserves to support its own banks and companies. Some Russian banks will also be excluded from the key international payments system, Swift.
As well as cutting some Russian banks out of Swift and freezing the central bank’s assets, Western sanctions are also targeting the assets of oligarchs and those close to the Russian government, as well as limiting their ability to acquire citizenship of other countries.
Photo by Vardan Papikyan on Unsplash
