Britain freezes assets of Russia’s biggest bank

Britain has frozen the assets of Russia’s biggest bank, banned outward investment to the country and promised to end imports of Russian oil and coal by the end of this year.

The measures are part of a new package of sanctions in response to alleged war crimes by Russian forces which Boris Johnson described as coming close to genocide.

The move against Sberbank was coordinated with the United States, which also announced on Wednesday that it was freezing the bank's assets. All new outward investment in Russia, which was worth £11 billion in 2020, will be banned and a further eight oligarchs will be subject to sanctions.

"Today we are stepping up our campaign to bring Putin's appalling war to an end with some of our toughest sanctions yet," foreign secretary Liz Truss said.

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"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. Together with our allies we are showing the Russian elite that they cannot wash their hands of the atrocities committed on Putin's orders. We will not rest until Ukraine prevails."  The latest measures are the fifth package of sanctions Britain has imposed on Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, but Labour's shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said the government needed to go "faster and harder", complaining that some sanctions announced earlier have yet to be implemented.

“Weeks after both measures were promised, there is still no ban on the export of luxury goods or limits on Russians depositing money into UK bank accounts. There are still loopholes around trusts and ownership thresholds. Talking tough without delivering is unacceptable,” he said.

"As well as crippling Putin's war chest we need to apply diplomatic pressure by expelling Russia's ambassador and intelligence agents from the UK, and kicking Russia out of the United Nations Human Rights Council. "

Revelations

Earlier, Mr Johnson said the atrocities uncovered in Bucha would prompt other countries to tighten sanctions against Russia too.  “I’m afraid when you look at what’s happening in Bucha, the revelations that we are seeing from what Putin has done in Ukraine doesn’t look far short of genocide to me,” he said.

“It is no wonder people are responding in the way that they are. I have no doubt that the international community, Britain very much in the front rank, will be moving again in lockstep to impose more sanctions and more penalties on Vladimir Putin’s regime.”