Third parties including charities and private individuals have pressed the UK government to add at least 1,000 names to its sanctions regime after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
(Bloomberg) — Third parties including charities and private individuals have pressed the UK government to add at least 1,000 names to its sanctions regime after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
From the invasion in February to June 2022, there were 37 requests made to the Foreign Office seeking to sanction a total of 1,002 people under regulations relating to Russia and Belarus, the department said last week, following a freedom of information request by Bloomberg News.
The Foreign Office declined to disclose how many of the submitted names were later sanctioned. As of mid-January, 1,463 individuals and 162 entities were subject to UK sanctions under the Russia regime.
A spokesman said designations are made on evidence from a range of sources. “Our sanctions are designed within a fair and transparent legal framework and undergo stringent legal scrutiny to ensure they are robust,” the spokesman said by email.
Still, the number of the submissions highlights the involvement of third parties as part of the unprecedented curbs on Russian money over the past year.
In some cases, the evidence is haphazard, with submissions including dossiers of media reports to support their claims, according to Anna Bradshaw, a London-based partner at law firm Peters & Peters who represents sanctioned clients.
“Often the press reports will be a really obscure publication, often in foreign language and an online only publication, and it’s quite frequent that you’ll see Facebook posts and blogs being relied on,” she said. “Because there is no legal test for what they can and can’t rely on it’s kind of a free for all.”
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