UK Expands Russia Sanctions with Focus on Shadow Fleet

Britain imposed fresh sanctions on Russia on Tuesday, targeting Yandex Bank, a network linked to Russian military intelligence and dozens of vessels accused of shipping Russian oil and gas to third countries as part of Moscow’s "shadow fleet."

The package, covering 70 new designations, also covered insurer Rosgosstrakh, Evofinance Mosnarbank and Wildberries Bank, and are part of British efforts to step up pressure on the financial and logistics networks it says are helping the Kremlin in its war in Ukraine.

"These sanctions target the vessels, the money and the actors propping up Russia’s war economy, and in turn, threatening European security," said Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is attending a Group of Seven summit in France.

The measures include more than 20 oil tankers and several liquefied natural gas vessels, in what the government said was the first time a G7 country has sanctioned ships linked to Russia's Arctic LNG 2 project.

Britain has sanctioned almost 600 shadow fleet vessels to date, according to the government, and in March Starmer gave permission for the military to board and detain ships suspected of helping Russia export oil despite Western restrictions.

In the first UK-led operation, British commandos boarded and intercepted a sanctioned shadow fleet oil tanker in the Channel on Sunday.

The new sanctions also target what Britain described as a Russian military intelligence procurement network centred on Neptune Co Ltd, which it accused of covertly acquiring Western technology for Russia's defence sector.

($1 = 0.7443 pounds)

(Reuters - Reporting by Sam Tabahriti and Alistair Smout; editing by William James and Sarah Young)