Labour is putting pressure on Boris Johnson to ramp up sanctions against Russian oligarchs associated with Vladimir Putin.
Stephen Kinnock, shadow minister for immigration, said that he was “mystified” about why the UK Government is not publishing the names of the Russian people that “we are sanctioning and getting on with the job”.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny suggested a list of Russians that should be sanctioned, but the names of everyone on the list is yet to be published in the UK.
Speaking to Sky News, Kinnock said the list “includes people like (Roman) Abramovich, (Alisher) Usmanov. We’ve seen the European Union and the United States publishing those names.
Kinnock said: “I am just mystified as to why the British Government is not publishing the names of the people that we are sanctioning and getting on with the job."
He added: “It’s too slow and just looks like foot-dragging."
“The Government’s got to step up and show the leadership that we must show just to reflect the tremendous courage and leadership that the people are showing.”
Johnson is due to face Keir Starmer in the Commons at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, a day after being confronted by a Ukranian journalist who told him NATO was too “afraid” to defend her country.
At a press conference in Poland Daria Kaleniuk told the Prime Minister: “You are talking about more sanctions, but Roman Abramovich is not sanctioned. He’s in London. His children are not in the bombardments, his children are there in London. Putin’s children are in the Netherlands. In Germany. In mansions.
“Where are all these mansions seized? I don’t see that.”
Boris Johnson told the House of Commons last week that the UK's measures were "the largest and most severe package of economic sanctions that Russia has ever seen".
But Labour’s Liam Byrne MP said the sanctions imposed by the UK are limited compared with other countries.
Byrne pointed out there are 23 Russians and Russian organisations working for Putin’s regime on the EU sanctions list who have not been targeted by the UK.
In other developments:
- Defence Secretary Ben Wallace warned that the Russians were likely to resort to carpet bombing as siege tactics were in the Russian military doctrine.
- Imposing no-fly zone over Ukraine would help Russia, said Wallace, and draw Nato into a direct war with Russia.
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