The United Kingdom announced on Sunday that it will increase tariffs on imports of platinum and palladium from Russia and Belarus in a new sanctions package affecting £1.7bn ($2.1 billion) of trade and which he said is intended to further weaken Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
Import tariffs on a number of products will rise by 35 percentage pointsBritain said, while also banning exports of goods such as chemicals, plastics, rubber and machinery to Russia, worth a combined 250 million pounds ($310 million).
The British government will legislate the new sanctions in due course, he said.
The UK is acting in concert with its Western allies to try to cripple the Russian economy as punishment for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and has already sanctioned more than 1,000 people and businesses.
Russia, one of the main producers of platinum and palladium, has described the invasion it launched in February as a “special military operation” aimed at demilitarizing and “denazifying” its neighbor.
British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said more than 4 billion pounds of goods would be subject to import and export sanctions, doing “significant damage to Putin’s war effort.” This is the third wave of sanctions against Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.
“Working closely with our allies we can and will thwart Putin’s ambitions,” Sunak said.