LONDON, May 13. /TASS/. The UK has extended its anti-Russian sanction list by including Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, ex-wife of President Vladimir Putin in it as well as several relatives of the Russian leader. This is according to a statement the UK Foreign Office published on its website on Friday.
In particular, restrictions were imposed on Igor Putin, first cousin of President Vladimir Putin, and a Russian businessman, Mikhail Putin, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of SOGAZ Insurance and Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Gazprom, Roman Putin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MRT Group of Companies.
Sanctions, implying a ban on entry into the UK and freezing assets in that country, if any are discovered, have also been imposed against Olympic champion in rhythmic gymnastics Alina Kabaeva and her grandmother Anna Zatsepilina, as well as businessmen Mikhail Shelomov and Alexander Plekhov, member of the board of directors of SOGAZ Mikhail Klishin, Vladimir Kolbin, General Director of Gelendzhik Sea Port LLC, Yury Shamalov, President of the NPF Gazfond, and Viktor Khmarin, lawyer.
Since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the UK has introduced restrictions against more than 1,600 Russian politicians, businessmen, officials, journalists and enterprises. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, about 20 Russian banks with a total assets of 940 billion pounds (over $1.2 trillion), as well as more than 100 large businessmen and their relatives, whose total assets are estimated by London at more than 170 billion pounds ( about $220 billion).
Earlier, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that more than 60% of Russia's foreign exchange reserves - over $350 billion - were frozen as a result of Western sanctions in response to the Russian special operation in Ukraine. Also, the export of goods in a number of industries was banned, the British skies were closed to Russian aircraft, ports were banned from the entry of Russian ships, and many private companies decided to suspend work in Russia or completely withdraw from Russian projects and refuse to invest in them.
On February 24, Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. After that the US, the EU, the UK and a number of other states announced that they would impose sanctions against Russian legal entities and individuals.