Liz Truss says she has ‘hit list’ of oligarchs facing UK sanctions
Britain has compiled a “hit list” of Russian oligarchs who will face sanctions over the coming weeks, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said.
She said there were more than 100 billionaires in Russia and that some of them would face “a rolling programme of sanctions” as officials compiled the evidence to justify their assets being frozen in the UK.
“We are targeting oligarchs’ private jets, we’ll be targeting their properties, we’ll be targeting other possessions that they have,” she told Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday. “There will be nowhere to hide.”
Truss also said the government would be bringing forward its long-awaited economic crime bill this week to make it easier for assets to be targeted, by enforcing more transparency about ownership.
The government has been criticised because so far only eight Russian oligarchs have been identified as being subject to individual UK sanctions. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, have also been sanctioned by the UK, but that announcement was seen as symbolic because neither Putin nor Lavrov are thought to have assets in Britain.
Truss has said that drawing up the paperwork to justify individual sanctions is not straightforward because individuals at risk of being singled out have already contacted the Foreign Office threatening legal action against any sanctions decision.
Asked on Sky if Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club, was on her hit list, Truss refused to say.
But she insisted that the government was determined to respond toughly to the Russian invasion of Ukraine because it believed it had not done enough in the past to confront Putin.
“Frankly, over the past 15 year we haven’t done enough to stand up to Putin,” she
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