Britain announced on Tuesday that it would ban the export of luxury goods – such as fashion and valuable artwork – to Russia and impose new tariffs on 900 million pounds ($1.2 billion, or about Brazilian reals). 6.15 billion) from Russian imports, including vodka and furs. The decision comes due to Vladimir Putin’s country’s invasion of Ukraine, which falls on its 20th day.
Our new tariffs will further isolate the Russian economy from global trade, and ensure that it does not benefit from the rules-based international system that does not respect it, Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement.
The move, in addition to previous sanctions imposed on Russian companies and billionaires for their ties to President Vladimir Putin, seeks to increase economic pressure on the Moscow regime.
The sanctions include raising tariffs by 35 percentage points on products such as vodka, animal skins, and metals such as silver, aluminum, copper and steel, among other goods from Russia.
The Department for International Trade said in a statement that British companies will not be able to export luxury products such as cars, artwork and fashion items to Russia.
“The tariffs add to the UK’s efforts to block Russia’s access to international finance, punish Putin’s friends and exert maximum economic pressure on his regime,” he added.
EU approves new sanctions against Russia against energy, steel and defense sectors
Today, the European Union formally approved a new barrage of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, which includes a ban on investment in the Russian energy sector, exports of luxury goods, and imports of Russian steel products.
The sanctions, which took effect after being published in the Official Gazette of the European Union later on Tuesday, also froze the assets of more businessmen who support the Russian state, including the owner of the soccer club. football Chelsea, Roman Abramovich.
The European Commission said in a statement on Tuesday that the sanctions include a “comprehensive ban on new investments in the Russian energy sector”.
An EU source told Reuters that the move would harm major Russian oil companies Rosneft, Transneft and Gazprom Neft, but that EU members would still be able to buy oil and gas from them.
The EU executive said there would also be a complete ban on transactions with some Russian state-owned companies linked to the Kremlin military-industrial complex.
The bloc reached a preliminary agreement on the new sanctions on Monday and raised no objections before the agreed deadline.
The ban on Russian steel imports is expected to affect products worth 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), according to the commission.
EU companies will also not be able to export luxury goods worth more than 300 euros, including jewellery. EU sources said exports of cars costing more than 50,000 euros would be banned.
The package also prevents credit rating agencies in the European Union from issuing ratings to Russian and Russian companies.
The latest sanctions come on the heels of three rounds of punitive measures that included freezing the assets of the Russian Central Bank and delisting some Russian and Belarusian banks from the Swift banking system.
*With information from Agence France-Presse and Reuters
