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The United Kingdom has announced that a full asset freeze and travel ban has been imposed against Alisher Usmanov and Igor Shuvalov, two of Russia's leading oligarchs with significant interests in the UK and close links to the Kremlin.
The UK Government on Thursday announced that a full asset freeze and travel ban has been imposed against Alisher Usmanov and Igor Shuvalov, two of Russia's leading oligarchs with significant interests in the UK and close links to the Kremlin. "Alisher Usmanov has had significant interests in English football clubs Arsenal and Everton. He owns Beechwood House in Highgate, worth an estimated 48m, and the 16th century Sutton Place estate in Surrey," the UK Foreign Office said in a statement. Igor Shuvalov's assets in the UK include two luxury apartments in central London worth an estimated 11m. He is a core part of Putin's inner circle, and headed up Russia's bid for the 2018 Football World Cup. According to the statement, the UK Foreign Secretary will also establish an Oligarch Taskforce of Ministers and officials from departments including the Home Office, Treasury, Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and the National Crime Agency. This expert group will coordinate cross-government work to sanction oligarchs, helping build cases against the list of oligarchs it has identified as targets. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: "Our message to Putin and his allies has been clear from day one - invading Ukraine would have serious and crippling economic consequences. Sanctioning Usmanov and Shuvalov sends a clear message that we will hit oligarchs and individuals closely associated with the Putin regime and his barbarous war. We won't stop here. Our aim is to cripple the Russian economy and starve Putin's war machine." The UK foreign office said that these latest sanctions are part of a tough package against Russia, including sanctioning the Russian Central Bank, and banning the Russian State and all Russian companies from raising funds in the UK. The government will also asset freeze every Russian bank. The UK government will continue to ratchet up pressure and use sanctions to degrade the Russian economy on a scale that the Kremlin, or any major economy, has never seen before, the statement added. (ANI)
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