The UK government followed through to the next stage of sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation due to the war launched by Putin in Ukraine with the aim to strengthen economic pressure on the Kremlin. According to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss' announcement on May 4th, 2022, the UK has adopted several important restrictions, including:
- a ban on services exports to Russia in such critical sectors as accountancy, management consultancy, and public relations services;
- a block of disinformation content from Russian news sources Sputnik and RT;
- over 1600 individuals and entities were sanctioned.
Liz Truss said: “Doing business with Putin’s regime is morally bankrupt and helps fund a war machine that is causing untold suffering across Ukraine. Cutting Russia’s access to British services will put more pressure on the Kremlin and ultimately help ensure Putin fails in Ukraine.”
In accordance with the press release, published on the UK government website, Russian business is highly reliant on western service companies for the production and export of manufactured goods, and almost 10% of Russian imports include accountancy, management, consultancy, and PR services from the UK.
So-called Big Four accounting and consultancy firms - Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC, have previously made a decision to limit their activities in the Russian Federation. Many other service companies such as advertising groups, as noted in the public media, have also sought to sell or close their Russian units while some law firms do not take on new clients from RF.
These restrictive measures of UK government are supposed to encourage Russia to cease actions which destabilize Ukraine, including actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.
Liz Truss has also announced 63 new sanctions, many of which hit actors from mainstream media organizations with asset freezing and travel bans. Under
the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 9) Regulations 2022, means of social media, internet services and app store companies must take action to block content from two of Russia’s major sources of disinformation, - RT and Sputnik.
