LONDON – The leaders of the G7, including the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, said they were shocked and “condemn in the harshest terms the Russian invasion of Ukraine”, which represents “a threat to the world order”. It was “an unprovoked and unjustified attack, preceded by false accusations”. Russian President Putin has “reintroduced the war on the European continent, and this puts him on the wrong side of history.” Thursday afternoon they expressed “support and solidarity with Ukraine.” The leaders, who spoke for an hour, said they were ready to act on the global energy markets: “We are in favor of the stability of world energy supplies and we are ready to act if necessary to deal with any problems “.
The EU is ready for new sanctions against Russia: hard intervention on finance and technology, but there is no stop to the purchase of gas
by our correspondent Claudio Tito
US President Joe Biden has announced “devastating sanctions”. As those revealed by Boris Johnson seem to be today in the House of Commons. The British Prime Minister exposed the plan to hit the Russian economy at the heart, after the invasion of Ukraine decided by Putin: in practice, the assets and operations of the main Russian banks and financial institutions, including Vtb, the second largest bank, will be frozen. largest in Russia with assets of around 190 billion euros and 95 thousand employees. The same measures will also be taken by the United States of America.
But there are also important commercial relations to end up under the trap of London, such as with Rostec, the largest Russian defense company that exports more than 12 billion a year in arms and employs two million people. Uralvagonzavod, one of the largest builders of tanks in the world, is also banned, as well as the “Tactical Missile Corporation”, instrumental in the supply of missiles used for the current invasion of Ukraine and five individuals of “Putin’s magic circle”, including Kirill Shamalov, former son-in-law of the president (he was married to his daughter Katarina) and the youngest billionaire in Russia. Now, in all, 100 companies and oligarchs are blacklisted in London, hit by sanctions, Johnson says, with an impact of around £ 120 billion.
The embarrassment of China, which refuses to utter the word “invasion”
by our correspondent Gianluca Modolo
Not only. Because the United Kingdom seems to be serious, despite the fact that over the years it has been accused, together with the City of London, of being the Russian oligarchs’ money laundering hub: so much so that the British capital has even been called “Londongrad”. On the basis of this new package of ten-point sanctions, in fact, any Russian citizen will not be able to have more than 50,000 pounds (about 60,000 euros) on their English bank account. In addition, the Russian state airline, Aeroflot, will be banned from British soil and will no longer be able to operate, and there will be more sanctions against hi-tech companies. “These are the toughest measures ever,” says Johnson, “we will hit the Russian economy severely.”
In reality, the British Prime Minister would like to be even tougher by excluding Russia from the “Swift” international financial and payment circuit: “But we still have to find an agreement with the other countries,” Johnson commented diplomatically in the House of Commons. The problem is, according to the Financial Times and the New York Times, countries like Germany and Italy do not agree to take such a heavy measure, because it would create many internal problems, first of all the payment of gas supplies to Russia. Negotiations between the greats of the West will continue in the next few hours.
Draghi’s words
“We are all very impressed by what happened tonight”, said the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi. “This crisis could last a long time, we must be prepared. I want to thank the United States and President Joe Biden for sharing information in recent weeks, and the European Commission for the good sanctions proposal that is on the table. On sanctions, we are fully aligned with France, Germany, the European Union. We must be united, firm, decisive and we must reaffirm our full support for Ukraine at every possible moment. “