Russia ‘scavenging vital chips from fridges’ as UK sanctions ‘top £18bn’

The UK government has said that ‘new figures’ show that its sanctions on Russia have led to £18bn being frozen and reported to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (‘OFSI’). This, it said, ‘is around £6 billion more than held across all other UK sanctions regimes.’

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Griffith said, ‘As staunch defenders of democracy, the UK is united with its allies in opposition to Russia’s barbaric and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. We have imposed the most severe sanctions ever on Russia and it is crippling their war machine.

‘To make sure we are doing all we can to keep the pressure on Putin’s corrupt cronies we are more than doubling OFSI’s headcount. Our message is clear: we will not allow Putin to succeed in this brutal war.’

Fellow minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan said, ‘Despite the Russian regime’s attempts to firefight, GDP is predicted to decline by up to 6.2% in 2022 when compared to pre-invasion forecasts, and decline a further 2.3% in 2023. 60% of Russia’s foreign reserves have been immobilised, Russia’s exports have plummeted, and imports of critical goods have dropped by 68% from sanctioning countries.’ Trevelyan added that such actions are having ‘a major impact on the Russian military complex – vital semiconductors are now being scavenged from fridges and soviet-era equipment is being sent to the front line.’

The new figures draw on OFSI’s recent report into its operations between April and August of this year, which says that ‘the invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent imposition of an extensive programme of sanctions measures has greatly increased OFSI’s licensing workload [causing] longer assessment times for some applications for licences than in previous years.

‘OFSI will look to develop a licensing strategy which responds to these licensing challenges encountered over the past 6 months under the Russia regime. This will encompass: increased resourcing of OFSI’s licensing function, the strategic development of OFSI’s use of general licences, the consideration of whether new licensing grounds and policies are needed to address novel situations arising as a result of Russia designations, and the updating of licensing processes and systems.’

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-sanctions-on-russia-top-18-billion-for-the-first-time