UPDATE: Russia promises to retaliate against ‘ugly’ UK sanctions

(rewrites story)

MOSCOW, Feb 4 (PRIME) -- The U.K.’s threats of new sanctions against Russia are bellicose and ‘ugly,’ and Russia will retaliate in case such measures are introduced, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Friday.

“We have noticed the statements, I will stress again, ugly statements made by the British Foreign Office,” Zakharova said.

“If the sanctions are applied indiscriminately to any Russian company, as the British side have said … it will be a serious obstacle to the development of trade and economic relations, our retaliation will follow.”

The new British sanctions “undermine their own investment attractiveness and in fact threaten their big business,” the spokeswoman said. According to Zakharova, this step is a new escalation twist and will certainly jeopardize bilateral relations.

Russian ambassador to London Andrei Kelin said that Russia has ways of retaliating against possible U.K. sanctions that would affect businesses in the U.K.

He said that trade turnover between Russia and Britain has grown by U.S. $5 billion to $27 billion over the past two years in 2021, with accumulated investment of $30 billion.

Foreign Office head Liz Truss said earlier on Twitter that the U.K. has prepared a toughest sanctions regime against Russia. Previously, she said that she did not rule out confiscation of property of ‘Russian oligarchs’ in London as part of strengthening sanctions against Moscow if the situation around Ukraine worsens.

At the moment, the 2018 Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act restricts U.K.’s ability to introduce desired sanctions against Russia, but the proposed amendments to this regime would expand the defining criteria for these individuals and companies, allowing Britain to associate more individuals and companies with the Russian government. The changes will provide additional opportunities to impose them if tensions on the Ukrainian borders strengthen.

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