British High Commissioner: Sanctions effective – Hit 90% of Russian banks

British High Commissioner in Cyprus Irfan Siddiq said the sanctions that were imposed against Russia are part of a broader political framework and have proved a success, as he addressed the 9th International Compliance Forum taking place in Nicosia.

Siddiq presented how the UK approaches sanctions. He noted that for UK, sanctions are used as a foreign policy tool to change the behaviour of those who are targeted. Its application though, is in domestic UK law.

According to the High Commissioner, the UK implements sanctions in order to deter, that is to try to change someone’s behaviour. Secondly, they apply sanctions in order to disrupt, so that to make it harder for those that intend to go on with that behaviour to access resources. Thirdly, the sanctions have a demonstrative effect, so that even if the assets of someone are outside of the scope of impact, “by opposing sanctions we still aim to have reputational impact, to stigmatise the actor”.

The forms of sanctions can be financial, such as asset freezing, trade, such as arms embargoes, or personal, such as travel and immigration bans, he noted. “We are very clear that sanctions can’t work on their own, they are part of a broader foreign policy framework”, he said.

Demonstrating how sanctions can work, Siddiq gave the example of sanctions imposed to Russia. After Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, “we worked together with EU and G7 to collectively impose sanctions on Russia’s illegal war. These sanctions that we have applied, along with our partners, are the most severe package of sanctions ever imposed on a major economy and they are working,” he noted.

As he said, UK alone has sanctioned over 1,600 individuals and entities under the Russian sanctions’ regime, since the invasion. These include 29 banks, which account for over 90% of the Russian banking sector and 129 oligarchs, with a combined net worth of 145 billion pounds.

Over 20 billion pounds of UK-Russia bilateral trade is now under full or partial sanctions, he noted, adding that there has been a 99.7% drop in Russian imports in UK and 75.5% fall in UK exports to Russia.

“Under this regime we have frozen over 80 billion pound-worth of Russian assets. These assets can no longer be used to fund Putin’s war machine”, he said, adding that the UK is committed to maintain the sanctions over time, to have maximum impact.

“Under this regime we have frozen over 80 billion pound-worth of Russian assets. These assets can no longer be used to fund Putin’s war machine”, he said, adding that the UK is committed to maintain the sanctions over time, to have maximum impact.

The International Compliance Forum is one of the biggest conferences of IMH, and every year it tackles the most important developments around regulatory compliance issues that concern professionals in the field as well as the largest local and international companies. This year’s edition is taking place on 20 October at the Filoxenia Conference Centre in Nicosia.