UK sanctions five Russian banks

Britain on Tuesday sanctioned five Russian banks and three individuals in response to Russia’s recognition of Ukraine’s separatist regions.

The Russian banks sanctioned are Rossiayaz Bank, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank, and the Black Sea Bank, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced.

Gennady Timchenko, Igor Rotenberg, and Boris Rotenberg were the individuals targeted by the sanctions and their assets in the UK will be frozen, Johnson said.

He said this was only the “first tranche” of measures and even more sanctions would be announced in case Russia prefers to go for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Johnson told lawmakers that he has “spoken on a number of occasions to President Putin since this crisis began and so has (US) President (Joe) Biden, while (French) President (Emmanuel) Macron and (German) Chancellor (Olaf) Scholz have both visited Moscow.”

Johnson said: “We will not give up: we will continue to seek a diplomatic solution until the last possible second, but we have to face the possibility that none of our messages has been heeded and Putin is implacably determined to go further in subjugating and tormenting Ukraine.”

The government will also implement sanctions against those members of the Russian parliament as well as the Federation Council that voted in support of recognizing the independence of the two Ukrainian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The announcement was made by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss following Johnson’s address to parliament. Truss said the sanctions were aimed at curtailing the ability of the Russian government in further threatening the security of Europe by raising funds through the UK and western markets.

Truss issued a warning to Moscow saying should Russia continue to further threaten Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty and destabilize European security, further sanctions would target Moscow’s ability to issue sovereign debt on UK markets and so isolate Russia from the global economy.