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Summary
Here is a quick recap of some of the main developments from today:
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Boris Johnson is under pressure, including from his own MPs and opposition parties, to move faster in targeting assets of Russian oligarchs after it was conceded it could take “weeks and months” to build legally sound cases. The EU is pressing the UK to go further and faster in imposing sanctions on Russian oligarchs over fears that assets are being swept out of the UK. Contrary to the prime minister’s claims to be leading the world in the economic response to the invasion of Ukraine, there is frustration among allies over the UK’s lethargy in hitting Russian wealth. Story here.
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Liz Truss said the UK must and will go further on sanctions against Russia. She said: “I’m very clear that legal threats will have no impact on our ability to sanction oligarchs and we will continue to work through our list, we will continue to sanction oligarchs and there is nowhere for any of Putin’s cronies to hide.”
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Ofcom is now reviewing whether to revoke Russia Today’s broadcast licence entirely, Nadine Dorries said. The culture secretary told the Commons that Vladimir Putin “must not be allowed to exploit our open and free media to spread poisonous propaganda into British homes”.
- The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said the NHS must stop using energy supplied by the Russian-owned firm Gazprom. More than a dozen NHS trusts are thought to be supplied by Gazprom, alongside several local councils. A source told PA: “Sajid has spoken with NHSE and been clear that trusts need to stop using Gazprom as a supplier. He has also requested a wider review of any Russian role in supply chains across the health service.”
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The Liberal Democrats have written to ministers to formally demand the UK government seizes homes owned by oligarchs with close links to Vladimir Putin, and that in the short term they are used to house Ukrainian refugees. Alistair Carmichael, the party’s home affairs spokesman, told Priti Patel, the home secretary, it was “time to freeze these assets and put them to good use”, saying this would also help keep Ukrainian refugees out of hotels or other unsuitable accommodation.
- Culture is “the third front in the Ukrainian war”, Nadine Dorries said, as the cabinet minister said sporting sanctions could hit as hard as economic measures on Russia. Writing in the Telegraph (paywall), Dorries said she was using the “full might of the UK’s soft power” to make Putin an “international pariah”. She told MPs the Russian president is “suffering a sporting and cultural Siberia” that will be causing him “real pain”.
- Damian Hinds, the security minister, described the Russian military as a “ruthless invading force” which poses not only an immediate danger to Ukraine, but also a threat to “wider Europe and the world”.
Updated
