Boris Johnson was today branded a “poodle on roubles” for failing to impose tougher sanctions on Russian oligarchs, firms or cronies of Vladimir Putin.
Despite the Prime Minister’s claim to be leading the world in penalising the Kremlin, and a war crimes investigation being opened, the UK has so far targeted just 15 individual Russians including Putin and his Foreign Minister.
By contrast, the EU has imposed sanctions and travel bans on 702 people, including all the members of the Russian parliament, and more than 50 organisations with links to Putin.
Ministers are now promising to extend the sanctions regime and are drawing up plans to allow the seizure of oligarchs’ UK mansions.
They are also looking at rewriting UK sanctions laws after a source admitted it could take "weeks and months" to build a legally watertight case against some oligarchs.
Pressure on the UK to do more came after the German authorities seized a £448m million luxury yacht owned by Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov - the tycoon with close ties to the English Premier League. He was later sanctioned by the UK on Thursday night.
French customs also impounded a superyacht belonging to Igor Sechin, a former KGB agent who runs the Rosneft oil company.
- Scroll down for a full list of 21 oligarchs and firms sanctioned by the EU - but not the UK. NOTE: The list was 22 but the Foreign Office later announced it would sanction Igor Shuvalov.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said “there is nowhere for any of Putin’s cronies to hide” as she seeks to hit more Russian oligarchs with sanctions.
But Labour MP Chris Bryant said: “I don’t understand why we haven’t seized a single Putin oligarch yacht, palace or serious asset yet. Unlike our European neighbours.”
Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs select committee, echoed the frustration, saying: “We should be looking immediately to seize those assets linked to those who are profiting from Putin’s war machine, holding it in trust and returning it to the Russian people as soon as possible.”
The EU also put pressure on London do to more amid growing concerns the sluggish British response could allow the oligarchs time to sweep their money out of the country before it is frozen.
Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s first vice-president, told the BBC. “The UK is now following our lead. And I’m sure they will continue to follow the lead because the pressure of the public opinion in the UK is very clear about this.”
The UK has said it will soon join the EU in imposing sanctions on members of the Duma and Presidential Council - the two houses of the Russian Parliament.
But it has yet to follow Brussels by banning the trade in Russian state bonds and a ban on trading with the breakaway regions of Ukraine declared independent by the Kremlin. Such a move against Donetsk and Luhansk is expected soon.
Boris Johnson wants to publish a list of Russians with links to the Kremlin, but this will have no legal powers and not be a sanctions package.
Ministers are working on a new law that would allow the government to seize, then use or sell, property or land owned by tycoons sanctioned over their links to Putin.
UK laws currently allow for assets to be frozen but not for them to be seized. Under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act “the everyday use by a designated person of their own economic resources for personal consumption is not prohibited.”
This allows oligarchs' wives and children to carry on living in their properties, and they can continue to use their yachts and private jets.
New laws could be brought to the Commons as soon as next week.
But they could take several weeks to come in effect.
Officials are braced for oligarchs to launch legal battles, and any change would likely need to be part of an Act of Parliament.
Ministers have even discussed using confiscated mansions to house Ukrainian refugees. A source close to the talks told the Mirror it was a “genuine possibility”.
But the source admitted it would likely be more useful to sell property and use the proceeds to help refugees, rather than house them in the mansions themselves.
“Realistically, I can’t imagine a 10-bedroom manor would be the most suitable accommodation,” they said.
The campaign group Transparency International has identified £1.5bn of property linked to Russians suspected of Kremlin links or corruption
Britain is also pressing to ensure all Russian banks are barred from the SWIFT payment system.
A government source said: “It is time to shut down the racket of illicit money in British property.
“We are sending a strong signal that the UK’s property market is not open to corrupt individuals and regimes laundering their money.”
But ministers faced anger for not moving faster against tycoons with links to Putin.
Security minister Damian Hinds insisted 270 were hit - but quickly admitted that dates back to 2014 and includes “banks, institutions, organisations, and firms”.
In addition to Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, nine Russian oligarchs had been sanctioned over the invasion and it was not immediately clear how much property they personally own in the UK.
They are Gennadiy Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg, Igor Rotenberg, Kirill Shamalov, Petr Fradkov, Denis Bortnikov, Yury Slyusar, Elena Georgieva, and Kirill Dmitriev.
The slow response has been blamed on the disjointed Whitehall machine which splits responsibility for sanctions between the Treasury, Foreign Office and Home Office.
No10 insisted it was "not true" the UK is going slower than the EU, adding: "The UK has placed an asset freeze on VTB, the second largest bank in Russia, along with the US.
“We have also banned Russian companies - over three million of them from issuing securities and raising debt.
“The EU has not done those things, so it is simply inaccurate to claim that they are moving faster than us on sanctions.”
But a leading lawyer told the BBC the wealthy Russians are already looking to move their money before any new sanctions come into force.
"The government has softened the blow by giving time to move their money out," Nigel Kushner of W Legal told the BBC.
Labour MP Liam Byrne said: “Our ministers are not only slow to the punch, they're a soft touch.
“Frankly Putin's mates are laughing at us.
“While the Europeans and Americans are throwing the kitchen sink at Russia's bad guys, we're puffing to catch up - and our crazy rules let oligarchs to carry on using their ill gotten jets, yachts and mansions.
“The Tories need to stop behaving like poodles on roubles and get a grip.”
Downing Street denied it could take months to prove the grounds to sanction some Russian oligarchs under measures to apply pressure on the Putin regimes.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "I don't recognise that certainly, I think we've said we're bringing sanctions against more individuals including 571 members of the Duma and Federation Council, we've been working on some of these sanctions in weeks and you will see more and more individuals added to that list as it grows."
Commons leader Mark Spencer said the UK was “leading the world” when it came to sanctions against Russia.
“We have introduced measures and sanctions that have taken the pain back to Vladimir Putin. There will be more sanctions and I think the Government should be praised for what it is delivering and it’s absolutely clear to see the Prime Minister is leading in the world.
“We were first country to call out and say Russian should be removed from the Swift banking system. That’s clear global leadership from the Prime Minister,” he told MPs.
21 Russians Britain is failing to sanction
Russian individuals and organisations which have been sanctioned by the EU but not by the UK
- Lieutenant General Sergey Vladimirovich Dronov: Commander of the Air Force and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Air and Space Forces who is responsible for air operations against Ukraine.
- Dmitriy Grigorenko: Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and Chief of the Government Staff of the Russian Federation. He is also the Chairman of the Supervisory Council of the state-owned VTB Bank.
- Internet Research Agency: A Russian company financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin accused of spreading disinformation about Ukraine and Russia’s objectives.
- Andrei Kostin: President-chairman of state-owned Vneshtorbank (VTB) and a member of the Supreme Council of the “United Russia” political party.
- Igor Osipov: Commander-in-Chief of the Black Sea Fleet which is involved in the military operation against Ukraine.
- Violetta Prigozhina: Owner of Concord Management and Consulting LLC founded by her son Yevgeny Prigozhin.
- Lyubov Prigozhina: Wife of Yevgeny Prigozhin and owner of Agat LLC, a subsidiary of Concord Management and Consulting LLC founded by her husband.
- General Oleg Salyukov: Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces who is responsible for Russian ground operations in Ukraine.
- Sergei Shoigu: Russian Defence Minister who is overseeing the military operations in Ukraine.
- Margarita Simonyan: Editor-in-chief of the television news network RT (Russia Today) that spreads propaganda on behalf of the Kremlin.
- Army General Sergei Surovikin: Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces who is responsible for air operations over Ukraine.
- Anton Vaino: Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office. A member of the Russian ‘Security Council’ that approved the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Ukraine.
- Nikolay Yevmenov: Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy.
- Aleksandr Chmyhalov: Deputy Head of the Sevastopol electoral commission and a member of the ruling ‘United Russia’ party.
- Vladimir Kasatonov: Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy.
- Marat Khusnullin: Deputy Prime Minister of Russia for Construction and Regional Development.
- Konstantin Knyrik: Head of the MediaGroup News Front Ltd a pro-Putin news website registered in Crimea.
- Maxim Reshetnikov: Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. He is also a member of the Supervisory Council of the state-owned VTB Bank.
- Vladimir Solovyev: Presenter on the Russia-1 channel known for his praise of the Russian government and support of its operations in Crimea and Ukraine.
- Maria Zakharova: Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
- Promsvyazbank: Russian State-owned bank which provides financial support to the Russian military.
