US, UK hit Russia with fresh sanctions for annexing Ukrainian regions

Washington, September 30

The U.S. on Friday sanctioned more than 1,000 people and firms connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including its Central Bank governor and families of Security Council members, after President Vladimir Putin signed treaties absorbing occupied regions of Ukraine into Russia, in defiance of international law.

The Treasury Department named hundreds of members of Russia’s legislature, leaders of the country’s financial and military infrastructure and suppliers for sanctions designations.

The UK government also imposed new services and goods export bans on Russia in response to what it termed the “illegal annexation” of four regions of Ukraine after “sham referendums”.

The services sanctions are designed to target vulnerable sectors of the Russian economy, including IT consultancy, architectural services, engineering services and transactional legal advisory services for certain commercial activity.

President Joe Biden said of Putin’s steps: “Make no mistake: These actions have no legitimacy.” He said the new financial penalties will impose costs on people and companies inside and outside of Russia “that provide political or economic support to illegal attempts to change the status of Ukrainian territory.” “I look forward to signing legislation from Congress that will provide an additional $12 billion to support Ukraine,” he said.

UK Foreign Secretary also instructed the Russian Ambassador, Andrey Kelin, be summoned to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), to protest in the “strongest terms” against the Russian action in Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

“The UK utterly condemns [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s announcement of the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory. We will never recognise the results of these sham referendums or any annexation of Ukrainian territory,” said UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

“The Russian regime must be held to account for this abhorrent violation of international law. That’s why we are working with our international partners to ramp up the economic pressure through new targeted services bans. What happens in Ukraine matters to us all, and the UK will do everything possible to assist their fight for freedom,” he said.

According to the FCDO, the UK is moving in lockstep with international partners and as Russia imports 67 per cent of its services from the sanctioning countries, it will impact access to IT services, advertising services, transactional legal advisory services and auditing services.

The UK has also sanctioned Elvira Nabiullina, the Governor of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

The FCDO said that in her role, Nabiullina has been instrumental in steering the Russian economy through the Russian regime’s illegal war against Ukraine and extending the ruble into the Ukrainian territories that are temporarily controlled by Russia.

The governor is now personally subject to an asset freeze and travel ban. “Russia is highly dependent on Western countries for legal services with 85 per cent of all legal services being imported from G7 countries – given London is an international legal centre, the UK accounts for 59 per cent of these imports,” the FCDO said.

“The new legal advisory measures will cover certain commercial and transactional services and hamper Russia’s businesses’ ability to operate internationally. IT consultancy services will also be banned, including designing IT systems and software applications. Alongside the UK’s previous ban on quantum computing exports and computing services, and with over 1,70,000 IT specialists fleeing Russia since the invasion began, these measures will further erode Russia’s ability to maintain technological development with the rest of the world,” it said.

The export of almost 700 goods from the UK to Russia are also being banned. The list includes hundreds of goods that are critical for production in Russia’s manufacturing sector, with imports from the UK totalling over GBP 200 million last year. In total, GBP 19 billion worth of UK-Russia trade has been wholly or partially sanctioned, based on official 2021 trade flows.

The U.S. and European Union are stepping up the intensity of sanctions after Russia announced it was mobilising up to 300,000 more troops to join the invasion of Ukraine and Putin ratified the results of Kremlin-orchestrated annexation “referendums” that Kyiv and the West call sham elections.

Putin warned that Russia would never give up the absorbed regions —the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions— and would protect them as part of its sovereign territory.

In Washington, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, “We will not stand by as Putin fraudulently attempts to annex parts of Ukraine.” “The Treasury Department and U.S. government are taking sweeping action today to further weaken Russia’s already degraded military industrial complex and undermine its ability to wage its illegal war.” AP