DOWNING Street has denied claims it could take “months” to sanction Russian oligarchs in the UK.
Reports this morning suggested the Foreign Office was struggling to impose penalities on some people, despite Liz Truss claiming there was a “hit list” of wealthy individuals that her department were eyeing up.
It has been claimed that the department was struggling to prove reaosnable grounds for imposing the sanctions on some individuals.
However the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said he did not recognise the reporting.
He said: ” I don’t recognise that certainly, I think we’ve said we’re bringing sanctions against more individuals including 571 members of the Duma and Federation Council, we’ve been working on some of these sanctions in weeks and you will see more and more individuals added to that list as it grows.”
Asked if it could be weeks, he responded: “You will see over the coming days and weeks more and more sanctions come in.”
He added that the sanctions were intended to “throttle” Putins regime.
He said: “When it comes to individuals it is the case that we need to do the preparatory work, the requisite work, to make sure it is legally sound before introduction.
“Like I said, we will keep that under review and if there are ways to further speed it up then we will.
“I wouldn’t want people to get lost on the fact of just focusing on individuals. Obviously what is important is what puts the most pressure on Putin’s regime.
“Our judgment is placing sanctions particularly on large banks and companies… that is what we believe will exert the most pressure on Putin’s regime and will throttle off funding for this illegal war against Ukraine.”