UK to speed up sanctions on Russia over Ukraine war, says PM Boris Johnson

With war raging in Ukraine, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that the the UK will be able to quickly impose sanctions on Russia as a result of new legal measures being introduced to the parliament next week.

The new legal measures are amendments to Britain’s economic crimes legislation, and if passed, will help the government move quickly to impose sanctions.

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“Top line of what our package on Monday will do is that the measures that you have against individual oligarchs in Europe will essentially allow us to catch them too,” Johnson said.

When asked about why embattled Russian oligarch and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, believed to have been in crucial in Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, had not been sanction, Johnson said that the government needed to move carefully for various reasons.

“None of us want to live in a country where the state can take your house off you without a very high burden of proof and due process,” the 57-year-old told Italy’s La Repubblica, highlighting the pitfalls associated with the abuse of state power.

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“There’s no point saying, yeah, we’re going to go after him, and then you come up against the brick wall of lawyers. So we have to get it right. We’re also trying not to just make this about one individual,” Johnson added, explaining the legal hurdles associated with pursuing Abramovich.

That being said, although Abramovich has not been sanctioned, the Chelsea owner has announced that he will sell the Premier League club and set up a charity to ensure that the proceeds from the sale go to the victims of the ongoing war in Ukraine.