CEOs of Russian energy giants among seven oligarchs targeted by UK sanctions

By Zeynep Beyza Kilic

ANKARA (AA) - The UK announced sanctions against seven oligarchs, including Igor Sechin, the CEO of Rosneft, and Alexei Miller, the CEO of Russia’s energy giant Gazprom on Thursday.

A full asset freeze and travel bans were introduced on seven of Russia’s wealthiest and most influential oligarchs in a bid to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin and those closely associated with the Kremlin.

The oligarchs, who have a collective net worth of around £15 billion, "will have their assets in the UK frozen, they are banned from traveling here and no UK citizen or company may do business with them," Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.

Other newly sanctioned individuals include the president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft, Nikolai Tokarev; owner of Chelsea FC, Roman Abramovich; Oleg Deripaska who has stakes in the Anglo-Russian green energy and metals company En+ Group; chairman of VTB Bank, Andrey Kostin, and the chairman of Bank Rossiya, Dmitri Lebedev.

"We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies," UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

The UK has already sanctioned more than 200 of Russia's most significant and high-value individuals, entities, and subsidiaries since the invasion of Ukraine.

The government is also working on the Economic Crime Bill which will come into force next week. The new bill will simplify the process of imposing sanctions and allow the UK to more easily sanction individuals.

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