Ukraine: Number 10 urges City firms to drop all ties to Kremlin-linked companies
Number 10 has urged City firms to drop any associations with Kremlin-linked companies like Gazprom and Rosneft as the west ratchets up its economic sanctions against Russia.
Boris Johnson’s official spokesman today told journalists that “no one should be supporting in any way or propping up in any way the efforts by Putin’s regime to subjugate Ukraine”, while refusing to rule out measures to force British firms to drop Russian clients.
It comes after BP announced last night that it would sell off its 20 per cent stake in Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft, after presure from the UK government.
Johnson’s spokesman said that law firms in the City, for example, should drop any of their Russian clients that are known to have close associations with Vladimir Putin’s regime.
“I think this is an incredibly serious situation and we want to take all possible steps to ratchet up the pressure on Putin and his regime to get him to step back from this path,” he said.
“Businesses seeking to facilitate that regime and Putin’s actions to continue down this path of violence – we think they should step back from that as well.”
The UK has moved to sanction a raft of Russian firms, with all major banks hit to be barred from operating in the country.
Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, has seen its stock price on the London Stock Exchange plummet by more than 70 per cent today.