The United Kingdom says it has frozen assets worth 18 billion pounds ($20.5bn) purportedly owned by Russian oligarchs, and other individuals and entities subjected to sanctions by London over the Russian offensive against Ukraine.
“We have imposed the most severe sanctions ever on Russia and it is crippling their war machine,” Andrew Griffith, a junior government minister in the UK Treasury, said on Thursday. “Our message is clear: We will not allow [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to succeed in this brutal war.”
According to Griffith, the newly frozen Russian assets were six billion pounds more than the amount reported across all other British sanctions regimes.
Western countries, including the United States and the UK, have slapped unprecedented sanctions on Russia since February 24, when Putin announced “a special military operation” in neighboring Ukraine on February 24 to “de-Nazify” the ex-Soviet republic.
So far, London has imposed sanctions against over 1,200 people and more than 120 entities in Russia, including businessmen, firms, and politicians.
Source: PressTV
