[1andrew1]

Boris Johnson under fire over ‘peashooter’ Russian sanctions

Initial UK measures widely denounced as too weak as PM urged to go further to punish Moscow for ordering troops into Ukraine

Tom Keatinge, an expert in finance and security at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, was dismissive of the UK measures. “All the talk on sanctions so far has meant to be a deterrent and we have turned up to a gunfight with a peashooter.”

Jason Hungerford, partner specialising in sanctions at Mayer Brown, agreed. “To say the UK sanctions list is underwhelming is an understatement,” he said. He added: “Clamping down on those banks is not going to change the Russian economy a whole lot. The individuals are a bit more interesting — but they have been sanctioned by the US for some time.”

Anton Lopatin, senior director at Fitch Ratings, said: “Promsvyazbank is the largest bank in this list, but this is a bank focused on military financing. It operates with companies operating in the defence industry. Adding it to the UK sanctions list will have very little impact.”

https://www.ft.com/content/d9ec9b5d-...2-44f0b5995d24