Boris Johnson's sanctions against Russia don't go far enough, Tom Tugendhat claims

Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat has said UK sanctions against Russia should go “much further, much faster”.

The comments came after Boris Johnson announced the UK is sanctioning three wealthy allies of Vladimir Putin and five Russian banks, under a “first barrage” of measures in response to a “renewed invasion” of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to occupy areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, the separatist regions in Ukraine, claiming it was so that they could "maintaining the peace" there.

The Kremlin also recognised the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Tugendhat said more should be done, arguing Mr Putin’s wealth should be “splashed all over every newspaper in the world”.

He continued: “I’d like to see this go much further, much faster.

"As my former boss, the chief of the defence staff, General Lord Richards, put it: clout, don’t dribble.

"You allow people to think that you’re not serious if you don’t respond seriously quickly, and it can lead to worse confusion in the future.”

He added: “What you need to do is you need to be extremely clear, extremely quickly, and make it perfectly obvious that Russian dirty money and Russian influence peddling in the United Kingdom is not OK, and that we’re going to defend the British people against the corruption that they bring.

"So I would like to see the identification of President Putin’s wealth – I’d like to see it splashed all over every newspaper in the world.” he told BBC Radio 4.

Labour leader Keir Starmer also called for sanctions to go further, including a ban on trading in Russia’s sovereign debt and banning the country from access to the international bank transfer system, Swift.

According to the UK Government, trade between the UK and Russia was £11.2 billion in 2020.

Last year, imports from Russia were worth £11.6 billion – an increase of 43.6% on the previous year – and the UK exported goods worth £4.3 billion to Russia.

The London Stock Exchange took the changes in its stride and has remained up on the day, although some analysts warn banking stocks could come under pressure.