UK sanctions Russian weapons bosses for role in Ukraine war
The move is part of the UK's latest efforts to punish Moscow for its ongoing war.
Aleksey Viktorovich Rtishchev, head of Russia's radiological chemical and biological defence troops, and his deputy, Andrei Marchenko, face asset freezes and travel bans.
The British government stated their role in the transfer and use of chemical weapons in Ukraine prompted these measures.
Separately, the Joint Stock Company Federal Scientific and Production Centre Scientific Research Institute of Applied Chemistry has been sanctioned for supplying RG-Vo riot control agent grenades to the Russian military.
These grenades, the government said, have been deployed as a method of warfare against Ukraine, a direct contravention of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
In June, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer promised to keep 'tightening the screws' on Russian leader Vladimir Putin as he announced a raft of fresh sanctions on dozens of new Russian finance, military and energy targets.
Two UK residents who have funnelled more than $120m of electronics to Russia through a network of companies were also among those targeted as the government vowed to 'starve Putin's war machine'.
'We know that our sanctions are hitting hard, so while Putin shows total disregard for peace, we will not hesitate to keep tightening the screws,' Sir Keir added.
Those sanctions were aimed at Russia's finance, military and energy sectors, including Russia's shadow fleet of oil tankers, which is illicitly transporting oil to skirt Western restrictions, with 20 additional ships targeted.
The UK also cracked down on those enabling Putin's illegal oil exports, sanctioning the energy firms Orion Star Group LLC and Valegro LLC-FZ for their role in crewing and managing shadow fleet vessels.
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The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
How a junior trader paid for the banking crisis – while the big bosses never joined him in the dock
The wheels of British justice are appallingly slow. Back in 2016, I wrote that the conviction of Tom Hayes, the bank trader jailed for conspiring to manipulate the Libor interest rate, was unsafe. Today, finally, the Supreme Court has agreed to quash his conviction. The case of Carlo Palombo, the other trader who had his conviction quashed today, was not linked to Hayes. Palombo received four years in 2019. When ex-Citi and UBS banker Hayes was found guilty in 2015, he was sentenced to 14 years, an astonishing long term for a white-collar criminal in this country. That was reduced to 11 years on appeal, but as I remarked at the time, you get less for killing someone. There is no doubt he was being made an example of. There was considerable public anger at the way bankers had walked scot-free from the financial crisis – still is – and Hayes was seen as discouraging others. He was portrayed as being at the centre of a web, setting the benchmark rate used for millions of personal loans; he was therefore the worst of the worst, an arch-villain who profited from ordinary folks; he, everyone seemed to agree, deserved every moment spent inside. But in his case, there literally were no others. A year later, in a blow to the Serious Fraud Office, which brought the prosecutions, six brokers were acquitted of conspiring with him to fix the interbank rate. On their acquittals, in his cell at HMP Lowdham Grange, Hayes could be forgiven for raging against the iniquity of a system that saw his life ruined. Particularly, as in the professional hierarchy, Hayes was a junior. We were supposed to believe that others never condoned what he did. It simply never rang true that he was able to act without anyone above him at the bank knowing and agreeing. That unease only increased with details emerging about his personality. He was a bit of a geek, as many are in his area of work. He learned by heart the Highway Code from cover to cover when he was learning to drive. It was one of the traits that earned him his nicknames of 'Rain Man' and 'Kid Asperger's'. But, as he explained, it also meant he was ideally suited to futures trading. 'The success of getting it right, the success of finding market inefficiencies, the success of identifying opportunities and then when you get it right, it's like solving that equation,' Hayes said in court. 'It's make money, lose money, and it's just so pure.' Symptomatic of an underlying condition, he was also open and personable, not sophisticated at keeping something secret. Indeed, that was his defence, that what he did was common; he was encouraged to do what he did and he did not believe he was acting dishonestly. It would have been more reassuring if his bank bosses had joined him in the dock. But they never did. 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In Hayes' earlier trial, however, without the evidence from his alleged co-conspirators, the jury was certain there was a conspiracy. Later, with those not guilty verdicts, that did not seem right or fair. During his closing speech to the jury at Hayes' trial, Mukul Chawla QC for the prosecution was keen to point out that Hayes was the first but would not be the last. Again this was a reference to the six. But look what happened. In light of their acquittals and the non-submission of their statements in his trial, Hayes deserved a fair hearing. Shamefully, it took nine further years for that day to arrive.
Reuters
21 minutes ago
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