The UK has added 65 new sanctions against banks, companies and individuals with ties to the Russian Government
Among the entities affected, the UK froze the assets of Russian state-run shipping firm Sovcomflot and Gazprombank, a major conduit for payments for Russian oil and gas.
"Putin should be under no illusions – we are united with our allies and will keep tightening the screw on the Russian economy to help ensure he fails in Ukraine," UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. "There will be no let-up”.
The UK has sanctioned over 1,000 individuals and businesses under the Russia sanctions regime since the invasion.
"All those sanctioned today will have their assets in the UK frozen which means no UK citizen or company can do business with them, and individuals subject to travel bans are also prohibited from travelling to or from the UK," Foreign Secretary Truss said.
Sanctions pose a threat to projects under construction or in the planning stage, as well as to current LNG exporters’ ongoing operations, according to shipbroker Poten & Partners.
Restrictive measures have been applied by the US, EU, UK and others on a wide range of Russian companies, banks and individuals. In addition to sanctions, some Russian banks have been banned from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which is a messaging system that banks use to make cross-border payments.
Sanctions have left Russian LNG sector companies and the domestic and foreign companies that provide finance and services to them struggling to assess their liabilities and exposure to counterparties.
Russian shipping company Sovcomflot has said it continues to operate as usual despite being subject to US sanctions. Prior to the UK naming the company in its latest round of sanctions, Scotland sought to block Sovcomflot Aframax oil tanker NS Challenger from loading at Flotta in the Orkney Islands, with the move to turn away the tanker having the support of UK transport secretary Grant Shapps who has told UK ports to reject Russian ships.
Sovcomflot also operates the prototype Arc7 LNG carrier Christophe de Margerie which is chartered to Yamal Trade. Yamal, with one Arc7 currently out of service, does not have enough shipping capacity to deliver any more cargoes with Arc7s along the Northern Sea Route at this time and has restarted transhipments off Murmansk to maximise exports from Sabetta.
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