U.K. Government Sanctions Seven Russian Oligarchs

THE PARTY’S OVER: They were London’s gilded class, living in multimillion-pound mansions in the leafiest parts of the capital, splashing their wealth on Bond Street, and sending their children to the country’s finest boarding schools.

Now, they can no longer enter Britain, entertain in their lavish homes, or even slurp oysters at the oligarchs’ favorite dinner spot, Novikov, in Mayfair.

On Thursday, the U.K. government said it was sanctioning seven Russian oligarchs who have a collective net worth of 15 billion pounds. The businessmen made their fortunes inside, and outside, Russia, and bowed to the demands of Vladimir Putin.

Among the most famous names on the British government’s much-anticipated list is Roman Abramovich, who is in the process of selling his football team Chelsea FC, and who ranked at number eight on The Sunday Times of London Rich List 2021.

His wealth has been estimated by the newspaper at 12.1 billion pounds, with at least 200 million pounds tied up in property. The money comes from the steel and mining giant Evraz, which is quoted on the London Stock Exchange. Shares in the company were suspended following the news of the sanctions.

Abramovich’s assets have been frozen, and he is prohibited from transacting with U.K. individuals and businesses. He is also subject to a travel ban and transport sanctions, which means he cannot sail so freely anymore on his super-yacht “Eclipse,” or zip around in his Boeing 767.

The U.K. has also stung Abramovich’s onetime business partner, the leading industrialist Oleg Deripaska, who has been sanctioned with the same measures. Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group, an Anglo-Russian green energy and metals company that specializes in the production of low-carbon aluminium.

Others who’ve been ensnared by the U.K. include “Putin’s right-hand man,” Igor Sechin, chief executive officer of Rosneft, the Moscow-based oil company, and four more of the Russian president’s inner circle. They have all been targeted with a freeze on their assets and travel bans, according to the government’s statement.

The U.K. is planning further crackdowns: It said a new Economic Crime Bill will come into force next week that will allow the government to move “further and faster than ever” on sanctions.

The new bill will also stop oligarchs threatening the U.K. with multimillion-pound lawsuits for damages at the taxpayer’s expense, the government said. The suits often stem from libel cases against newspapers, journalists and authors.

Others on the sanctions list are Andrey Kostin chairman of Russia’s state-owned VTB bank; Alexei Miller, chief executive officer of the Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom; Nikolai Tokarev, president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft, and Dmitri Lebedev, chairman of the board of Bank Rossiya, which is based in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there can be “no safe havens for those who have supported Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine. We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies.”

Many of those on Thursday’s sanction’s list are already subject to similar measures in the U.S. and the European Union, and some newspapers here have speculated as to why it took the U.K. so long to rein in the oligarchs, who have been living and doing business here since 1994.

It was the former British Prime Minister John Major who set up a special visa scheme for big investors, and since then Labour and Conservative governments alike have welcomed ultra-rich Russians into the country without probing where, exactly, their money was coming from — and how they were spending it.

The Sunday Times of London pointed out in a story last weekend that 92 “golden visas” have been handed to Russians since 2018, the same year that Russian secret agents, operating on British soil, poisoned at least three people, killing one.

Life could get even tougher for rich Russians with ties to Putin who are living and investing in the U.K.

Nickie Aiken, a member of parliament, believes the government sanctions should extend to private education, and that some Russian students should be sent back home.

“Why should the children of Putin’s cronies benefit from an education in this country when Ukrainian children are being murdered?” she told news outlets including the Mail Online.

“It’s about telling oligarchs they can’t enjoy this lifestyle while the people of Ukraine suffer,” Aiken said.