MANY nations are in discussions about imposing sanctions on Russia as it edges closer to an invasion into Ukraine.
The two countries are on the brink of war as Putin announced his recognition of two regions of Ukraine as independent.
Boris Johnson has announced the UK is setting "a barrage" of sanctions on Russia.
Russian banks sanctioned
Three uber-rich oligarchs close to the Kremlin – Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg and Igor Rotenberg – will be sanctioned.
The PM said: "Any assets they hold in the UK will be frozen, the individuals concerned will be banned from travelling here, and we will prohibit all UK individuals and entities from having any dealings with them.
The Foreign Office said the sanctions regime will hit "oligarchs at the heart of Putin’s inner circle and banks which have bankrolled the Russian occupation of Crimea".
Oligarch assets frozen
Five Russian banks are also being sanctioned – Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank.
Mr Johnson said: "This is the first tranche, the first barrage, of what we are prepared to do: we will hold further sanctions at readiness, to be deployed alongside the United States and the European Union if the situation escalates still further."
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But Mr Johnson faced calls to go much "further and stronger" amid dismay that the sanctions did not go far enough.
Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline
Putin was dealt a further gut punch as Germany pulled the plug on the multi-billion-pound Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
The undersea pipeline, meant to ferry natural gas directly from Russia to northern Germany, is owned by a subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned Gazprom.
Berlin has previously been reluctant to impose sanctions that would affect Nord Stream 2.
But at a press conference, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that “the situation today is fundamentally different and therefore, in light of recent events, we must also reassess this situation … also with regard to Nord Stream 2.”
Severing banking ties
In the case of an invasion, among the US's load of sanctions, President Biden announced that the US banks will cut relationships with Russian banks, Reuters reported.
Russian companies' access to US dollars and British pounds if the Kremlin orders an invasion would also be stopped.
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