Economic Sanctions Will Not Stop Putin, Say Experts

It is feared that the UK’s ‘massive package of economic sanctions’ will be largely symbolic

- Ben Chapman

Huge holes in financial sanctions and the “grotesque underfunding” of crime agencies have weakened the UK’s ability to fight back against Vladimir Putin, experts have said.

Lawyers told The Independent that a fresh round of sanctions announced yesterday would be ineffective and largely symbolic, despite Boris Johnson’s claims that new measures would “hobble” Russia's economy. The prime minister unveiled what he called a “massive package of economic sanctions... to collectively cease dependence on Russian oil and gas,” and “squeeze Russia from the global economy”.

He announced an asset freeze on 100 entities, including Russian bank VTB, a ban on Russian state and private companies from raising funds in the UK, and a new kleptocracy unit at the National Crime Agency to crack down on corrupt assets hidden in the UK.

Critics were sceptical of the latest measures, however. Jonathan Fisher QC, of Bright Line Law, said sanctions would do little to deter Putin, who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine yesterday. “We have to be realistic about what they can deliver,” Fisher said. “They are something more than nuisance value but, whether they are enough to change outcomes, I rather doubt.”