The Foreign Secretary has given a glimpse into further sanctions the UK could impose on Russia, warning those close to Vladimir Putin will see his incursion into Ukraine as a “self-inflicted wound”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Tuesday that three billionaire allies of the Russian president and five Russian banks would face punitive measures in response to their country’s aggression.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a video recognising two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent entities.
SPUTNIK
Writing in The Times, Liz Truss said the UK was also considering sanctions for members of the Russian Duma and Federation Council, and extending Crimea’s territorial sanctions to the separatist controlled territories in the Donbas.
“No UK individual or business will be able to deal with these territories until they are returned to Ukraine,” she said.
Ms Truss also said the UK has a “long list” of people who have been complicit in the actions of the Russian leadership, who the Government is willing to “(turn) up the heat” on unless Russia pulls back its forces.
Beyond financial sanctions, Ms Truss added the UK was willing to introduce “measures to limit Russia’s ability to trade and prohibit a range of high-tech exports, degrading the development of its military industrial base for years”.
She said: “In time, even those close to President Putin will come to see his decisions this week as a self-inflicted wound.”
Boris Johnson is set to face demands from across the political spectrum for tougher sanctions on Russia while the Foreign Secretary said “nothing is off the table” to stop Vladimir Putin’s incursion into Ukraine.
The Prime Minister is likely to come under fire in the Commons on Wednesday over the punishment doled out to Kremlin-linked oligarchs and banks by the Government in response to Russian aggression.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
Rob Pinney
But the PM faced criticism from all sides for not going far enough when he announced his clutch of measures on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister announced that three billionaire allies of the Russian President and five Russian banks would face punitive measures.
Similar sanctions have been announced by allies in the European Union and the United States.
Calls have also been held between UK ministers and their counterparts in Baltic states which may feel under threat by Russia’s actions, as the US sent troops already stationed in Europe to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in what was called a “defensive” move.
But the British sanctions offering was branded as “gruel” by the Liberal Democrats’ Layla Moran, and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said “we must be prepared to go further”.
On his own benches, Mr Johnson was told by former Prime Minister Theresa May that “the battle in which we must now engage is nothing more or less than the defence of democracy itself”.
Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned that “Putin will have predicted and discounted western sanctions long ago, so does he (Mr Johnson) agree that if we are not to be behind in the diplomatic chess game, we need to do some things that he is not expecting?”.
Tobias Ellwood, Conservative chairman of the Defence Committee, said: “Sanctions alone will not be enough, indeed untargeted sanctions may play into Putin’s plan to pivot Russia ever closer to China.”
