(Bloomberg) — Foreign Secretary Liz Truss cut Russia off from accessing U.K. management consultants, accountants and public relations firms as she announced a further tranche of sanctions aimed at putting more international pressure on Vladimir Putin in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The new measures will mean Russia’s businesses can no longer benefit from the expertise of British firms, which currently provide about 10% of Russian imports in those sectors, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement Wednesday.
“Doing business with Putin’s regime is morally bankrupt and helps fund a war machine that is causing untold suffering across Ukraine,” Truss said. “Cutting Russia’s access to British services will put more pressure on the Kremlin and ultimately help ensure Putin fails in Ukraine.”
Russia Seeks to Annex Occupied Ukraine as Invasion Goals Shift
The move continues the British and western approach of ratcheting up sanctions on Russia to tighten the squeeze on its economy. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday said the bloc plans to ban Russian crude oil over the next six months. Britain has already said it plans to phase out imports of Russian oil by year-end.
The U.K. also announced fresh sanctions on 63 individuals and organizations, many of them targeting people connected to Russian news organizations in an effort to punish what it called “the spread of lies,” according to the statement.
The sanctions include the websites, social media accounts and apps of RT, Channel One and Sputnik. The nation has already banned RT from broadcasting its TV channel in the U.K. Russian war correspondents from All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company and the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda were also sanctioned as the U.K. accused them of spreading propaganda and disinformation.
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