The UK on Thursday announced sanctions, including a full asset freeze and travel ban, against seven oligarchs including Russian oil company Rosneft's CEO Igor Sechin and Gazprom's CEO Alexey Miller, over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The UK government said that in an effort to "to isolate Putin and those around him, these oligarchs – who have a collective net worth of around £15bn - will have their assets in the UK frozen, they are banned from travelling here and no UK citizen or company may do business with them."
A travel ban means that the designated person must be refused leave to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom, while an asset freeze prevents any UK citizen, or any business in the UK, from dealing with any funds or economic resources which are owned, held or controlled by the designated person and which are held in the UK. It also prevents funds or economic resources from being provided to or for the benefit of the designated person.
Among those sanctioned are the owner of Chelsea FC Roman Abramovich, industrialist Oleg Deripaska, Andrey Kostin, Chairman of VTB bank, Nikolai Tokarev, president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft, Dmitri Lebedev is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Rossiya, and the already mentioned Sechin and Miller. Miller has also been sanctioned by the US, and Sechin by the U.S. and EU.
The UK government said it has already sanctioned more than 200 of Russia’s most significant and high-value individuals, entities and subsidiaries since the invasion, with over 500 of them now covered by the UK’s sanctions list.
Earlier this week, the UK said it would phase out imports of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022. UK Business minister Kwasi Kwarteng called said the government would form a taskforce to work with firms to find alternative suppliers.
"This transition will give the market, businesses, and supply chains more than enough time to replace Russian imports – which make up 8% of UK demand," Kwarteng said on Twitter, as reported by Reuters.
He also said he was exploring options to end British imports of Russian gas which accounts for about 4% of supply in the country, Reuters reported earlier this week.
Responding to the news of Russian oil import phase-out plans, Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), until recently known as Oil and Gas UK, a trade association for the offshore energy industry said it remained focused on supporting both the UK’s energy security and net zero goals by scaling up cleaner energies like wind and hydrogen, "but also by ensuring we produce as much of the oil and gas that this country will continue to need domestically, rather than being reliant on importing it from other countries around the world."
Deirdre Michie OBE, CEO of Offshore Energies UK, said: "The UK has diverse, secure, and reliable energy sources with the majority of it coming from domestic production and pipelined supply from Norway. We continue to work with the government and our members to see how we can build on this reliable energy base while continuing to rapidly accelerate the transition to cleaner energies. We will consider these proposals in more detail in the coming days and stand ready to work with the government as we provide the skills, capabilities, and infrastructure required to deliver the UK’s energy ambitions.”
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