Britain urged Putin to “step back from the brink” after the Russian buildup of troops near Ukraine stoked fears of war, and warned any incursion would trigger sanctions against companies and people close to the Kremlin.
“The individuals we have identified are in or near the inner circles of the Kremlin and play a role in government decision making or are at a minimum complicit in the Kremlin’s destabilizing behavior,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said planned legislation will give London new powers to target companies linked to the Russian state. Neither government revealed who was in their sights for sanctions.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the British warning “very disturbing,” saying it made Britain less attractive to investors and would hurt British companies.
“An attack by a given country on Russian business implies retaliatory measures, and these measures will be formulated based on our interests if necessary,” Peskov said.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, London has become the haven of choice for a river of money from Russia and other former Soviet republics. Transparency advocates have long called on Britain to be tougher about illicit financial flows.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was due to speak to Putin by telephone late on Monday or early Tuesday and travel to Ukraine on Tuesday.
“What I will say to President Putin, as I’ve said before, is that I think we really all need to step back from the brink, and I think Russia needs to step back from the brink,” Johnson told reporters.
At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday, requested by Washington, Russia’s U.N ambassador said the West’s assertion that it had amassed 100,000 troops near Ukraine had not been confirmed by the international body and there was no proof it was planning military action.
He said U.S. talk of war was “provocative,” that Russia frequently deployed troops in its own territory, and that Ukraine’s crisis was a domestic issue.
China’s ambassador to the United Nations said China did not view Russia’s troops near the border as a threat and urged all parties to not aggravate the situation.
Although Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and backs pro-Russian rebels fighting government forces in east Ukraine, denies planning further incursion, it is demanding sweeping security guarantees including a promise NATO never admit Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to speak by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, a state department spokesperson said.
RUSSIAN MONEY ABROAD
Opponents of Putin have long urged the West to clamp down on Russian money, though oligarchs and Russian officials continue to flaunt wealth at Europe’s most luxurious destinations.
“Putin’s cronies will no longer be able to use their spouses or other family members as proxies to evade sanctions. Sanctions…
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