The UK Government has imposed “pathetic” sanctions on Russia that fall far short of what EU countries have unanimously agreed. Instead of living up to his promise “not to flinch”, PM Boris Johnson failed to prepare a meaningful response to the Russian incursion into Ukraine.
The situation underlines the UK’s weak and isolated position, outside the EU and in bad odour with the US Government (which fell out with Johnson's Government over Brexit’s effects on Northern Ireland).
It seems likely that the UK Government was not informed of what sanctions the EU countries were about to sign up to. Instead of standing in solidarity with its neighbours, it has been left scrambling behind. Many commentators have linked this to the UK Government's deep links to Russia and its failures to take steps over the amount of Russian money flowing into “Londongrad”.
Lib Dem MP Layla Moran took advantage of Parliamentary privilege on Tuesday to read out the names of 35 Russians she said were known to have assets in the UK, were close to Putin and should have been sanctioned. They were not.
What did Boris Johnson’s Government promise?
The UK Government was talking tough in the last few weeks - with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss promising the UK would bring in the “toughest sanctions”. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace resorted to World War Two rhetoric, offensively condemning EU government’s attempts at diplomacy as “the whiff of Munich”.
Writing in the Times last week, Johnson wrote: “We want our friends to have sanctions ready to go the moment the first toecap of the first Russian soldier crosses further into Ukraine’s sovereign territory. We will continue to press for this — and we are heartened by the work of allies so far…
“Today, Ukraine asks for nothing except that the domes of St Sophia should overlook a peaceful and sovereign nation, able to choose its own destiny and seek its own alliances like any other independent state. Britain has always stood for these principles and we will not flinch now.”
The reality is that if the UK was still in the EU, it would now be imposing more far-reaching sanctions on Russia
The UK has sanctioned five banks, four of which are very small, and three individuals who have been on the US sanction list for years. The FT quotes expert in financial security Tom Keatinge as saying they were equivalent to a “peashooter”. Jason Hungerford, a partner specialising in sanctions at law firm Mayer Brown told the paper: “To say they are underwhelming is an understatement”.
Writing in the Guardian, Labour MP for Rhondda and member of the Foreign Affairs select committee, Chris Bryant called the UK response “pathetic”: “The Russian banks that Boris Johnson put on the sanctions list today aren’t the major players: they’re the spare change in the Russian economy. The three individuals he named have already been sanctioned in the US since 2018. So, we’re picking off the minnows but allowing the basking sharks to swim freely. Johnson didn’t even know whom we had already sanctioned, claiming that Roman Abramovich was on the list and refusing to correct the record when I asked him about it. Later in the day, his office had to own up that he was wrong. Is it too much to expect that a prime minister at a moment of international crisis would actually know some of the details?”
Many in Boris Johnson’s Government have received donations from the Kremlin
Investigative journalist John Sweeney wrote in Byline Times yesterday (Wednesday ) that “Fears about the Russian secret state’s penetration of Boris Johnson’s Government and party are being broadcast loudly from people close to President Joseph Biden’s White House.”
“Alexander Temerko, who previously had several senior positions in the Russian defence ministry, has long claimed to be a close friend of Boris Johnson. Journalist Catherine Belton reported that Temerko said Johnson was persuaded to back Brexit in 2016 by a “group of eastern European businessmen” – and that makes Temerko a profoundly important figure in British politics.” Temerko has also made donations to Chancellor Rishi Sunak
Boris Johnson made Evgeny Lebedev a peer and a member of the UK’s legislature despite the fact he is bankrolled by his oligarch father Alexander.
The British government and intelligence agencies failed to conduct any proper assessment of Kremlin attempts to interfere with the 2016 Brexit referendum, according to a long-delayed report by a Parliamentary intelligence committee, published in 2020.
The report showed that at least 14 ministers in Johnson’s Government have received donations from the Kremlin.
Lord Agnew recently resigned from the Government recently in part over the “foolish decision” to kill off for the third session in a row the Economic Crimes Bill designed in part to help prevent Russian kleptocrats laundering their money through the City of London.
The UK Government’s approach is to say one thing and do another
The UK Government has alienated international allies and it has not backed its rhetoric with with action. This is a continuation of the UK government’s ongoing charade as we saw in Partygate, where the PM says one thing and does another.
I can’t comment on how the situation in the Ukraine will unfold - but it is a tragedy that the UK is in the hands of Boris Johnson and his ilk at such a time.
I got this comment from Prue. "Those sanctions have no bite at all. An educationist friend suggested sending the Russians sponsored school pupils in the private schools back home, amongst other things. Apparently there are a lot of them in the private schools these days. And as you implied, how much Russian finance has shored up the Conservative party? I doubt that hitting RT will make much of an impression. Talk about the mouse that roared…only this one had laryngitis."