UK vows to sanction Russian oligarchs, ponders law change

UK Foreign minister Liz Truss said on Thursday legal threats would not deter Britain from imposing sanctions on Russian oligarchs, amid criticism the government was taking too long to target individuals with links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Vowing there was "nowhere for any of Putin's cronies to hide", Truss said Britain was working on a further list of individuals to include in what she said was the toughest package of sanctions in British history.

But in a sign that ministers were frustrated at the pace of action following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last week, a government source said Britain could change the law to make it easier to impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs with homes and other assets in the country.

Since Russia launched the invasion on 24 February, Britain has imposed sanctions on nine wealthy Russians, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been accused by opposition politicians and some of his own lawmakers of failing to take more speedy action.

There have been growing calls for Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea soccer club, and others to be included in sanctions, but the government has said it must have a solid legal case that their finances are linked to Putin's administration before sanctioning any individuals.

British lawmakers have said any delay means those potentially subject to sanctions can move their wealth and assets out of Britain before they are designated.

"Legal threats will have no impact on our ability to sanction oligarchs," Truss told Reuters while on a visit to Lithuania. "We are absolutely determined to sanction Russian oligarchs. We have a further list we are working through."

Only last month, Britain passed legislation to broaden the scope of those who could be sanctioned in the event of a Russian invasion, to allow tough penalties on those close to Putin.

But the government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said because of the high bar still required to impose sanctions it was now seeking to change the law.

Britain has so far sanctioned on fewer people than the European Union, which on Monday imposed sanctions on 26 prominent figures, including oligarchs and people active in the oil, banking and finance sectors.

France and Germany have seized two super yachts owned by wealthy Russians, according to French authorities and Forbes magazine.

"Ministers had months to prepare for this eventuality, with the full support of parliament, and there is no excuse for their failure to introduce strong enough laws in the first place," David Lammy, the foreign affairs spokesman for the main British opposition Labour party.

"The government's failure to keep pace with the EU and the US on sanctions is allowing Putin-linked oligarchs to salvage hundreds of millions in assets."

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour's military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists - a pretext dismissed by Ukraine and the West as baseless propaganda.

Sanctions could take months

The Times newspaper earlier on Thursday reported that it would be weeks or months, if at all, before Britain sanctioned Abramovich and other oligarchs because it had been unable to prove reasonable grounds for doing so.

Abramovich's spokeswoman declined immediate comment on the Times report. He announced on Wednesday he would sell Chelsea Football Club and donate money from the sale to help victims of the war in Ukraine.

Johnson's spokesman said in response to the Times report that the government had to make sure it had solid legal grounds to link oligarchs' finances to Putin, but denied that Britain was being held back.

"We've gone further and faster than we've ever gone before," the spokesman told reporters. "Of course ... we keep under constant review whether or not we can do more to allow us to go even faster."

Johnson said on Wednesday he could not comment on individual cases when asked why Abramovich and other notable Russians had not been targeted.

The Times said the National Crime Agency (NCA) had tried in 2018 to build a case against Abramovich but failed. An NCA spokesman said it was only one of the agencies involved in providing evidence on whether someone should be sanctioned.

"If we were in a possession of material that would support sanctioning an individual we would provide it," the spokesman said.

Anita Clifford, a London-based lawyer who specialises in financial crime, said while there was a low threshold for the designation of sanctions, it still required a proper dossier of evidence or it could be challenged in court, and the government could be sued for large sums.

Ordinarily, the process would take at least a couple of months, she said.

"You need to have at least some evidence to support that suspicion that they're involved in the Russian regime," she told Reuters. "That can take some time, particularly given the number of designations that we're seeing."