On Monday this week, the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill received Royal Assent and became UK law. This has given the government new powers to act in the public interest and immediately designate individuals and entities under an urgent procedure, while evidence is gathered to sanction them under our own standard procedure.
Denying Russia access to Most Favoured Nation tariff treatment for key imports and applying additional tariffs will restrict Russian exports to the UK. The UK is working with our international partners and is supporting the World Trade Organization to prevent those who fail to respect the rules-based international order from reaping its benefits.
The new law enables the Government to levy an additional 370 more sanctions on Russian and Belarussian assets. This means over 1,000 individuals and entities, including many Russian oligarchs, will now be subject to sanctions since Russia launched the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The Government is clear: we will continue to tighten the screw on the Russian economy in the coming days, as the government makes full use of powers necessary to tackle the biggest security crisis in Europe since World War II.
These sanctions build upon the previous ‘lethal aid’ that the UK has provided to Ukraine with over 3,615 new light anti-tank weapons (NLAWs) along with a range of other defensive weapons and non-lethal aid such as body armour. The Defence Secretary recently informed the House of Commons that the UK will shortly start delivering anti-tank Javelin missiles and that the Government has now confirmed the authorisation of the donation of Starstreak high-velocity, man-portable anti-air missiles, which would allow Ukraine to better defend its skies.
The UK has led the international effort to support Ukraine, cutting off whole sectors of the Russian economy by targeting its defence companies, its trade and transport sector, and working with allies to exclude Russia from the SWIFT financial system. This is having a considerable impact on the Russian economy and the lack of support among many of the Russian people for their government is clear. Just this week, we have seen a Russian News executive bravely risk her own well-being to hold up a sign on Russian-State TV to highlight the frequent lies and falsehoods that a repeated every day by the presenters.
While our actions abroad and on the international stage are vital to ending the horrific conflict, we must also look at what we are doing nationally. I am extremely proud that over 100,000 people have signed up to open their homes to Ukrainian refugees fleeing from their country.
We have seen exceptional bravery by the Ukrainian people and military in standing up to the bully that is Vladimir Putin and I have no doubt that this will not cease until the country is free once again.
