Johnson urged to speed up UK sanctions on wealthy Russians

Bloomberg

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused of being slow to act in sanctioning Russian billionaires after the UK lagged the US and European Union in targeting individuals with links to Vladimir Putin.
In Parliament, opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer questioned why Igor Shuvalov, Putin’s former deputy prime minister, is not on the UK sanctions list despite being on the European Union’s.
Shuvalov owns “two flats, not five minutes walk from Parliament. They’re worth over 11 million pounds ($15 million),” Starmer told lawmakers on Wednesday. “When will the prime minister sort this out?”
The UK imposed sanctions on eight of the wealthiest Russians after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last, as well as on a wider list of more than 100 named individuals and entities. But there’s frustration among MPs of all political stripes that more haven’t been targeted. Starmer also accused the government of dragging its feet on a register of foreign owners of UK property.
Johnson said the U.K. should “be proud of what we have done already” and that he will continue to “tighten the vice on the Putin regime.” The government will publish a full list of individuals associated with the Russian leader and his government, he said.
Speaking to reporters later, Johnson’s spokesman, Max Blain, said the UK has gone further than other governments in targeting Russian banks and companies and that sanctions require “requisite evidence.”
Yet even Conservative MPs are frustrated, accusing the Foreign Office of not being prepared for sanctions. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said that sanctioning is “not a competition” with other nations. On Tuesday Home Secretary Priti Patel said there are “legal reasons” for the time being taken.