The United States and the United Kingdom are ready to punish Putin’s partners if Russia invades Ukraine

Steve Holland, Guy Faulconbridge and Dmitry Antonov

WASHINGTON / LONDON / MOSCOW (Reuters) – The US and its allies have drawn up a list of Russian elites in or near President Vladimir Putin’s circle to punish Russia for sending troops to Ukraine, a senior US official said on Monday.

Britain has called on Putin to “retreat from the edge” after a rally of Russian troops near Ukraine has sparked fears of war, and warned that any intrusion will result in sanctions against companies and individuals close to the Kremlin.

Foreign Minister Liz Truss said the planned legislation would give London new powers over companies linked to the Russian state, as well as freeze people’s assets and deny them access to Britain.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the British warning “very worrying”, saying Britain was less attractive to investors and would hurt British businesses.

“You don’t often see or hear such direct threats to attack businesses,” he said. “A particular attack on Russian business by a country involves retaliatory measures, which will be formulated in our best interests if necessary.”

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, London has become an optional haven for a stream of money from Russia and other former Soviet republics. Proponents of transparency have long called for Britain to be tougher with illegal financial flows.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to speak to Putin by phone on Monday night or Tuesday morning and will travel to Ukraine on Tuesday.

“What I’m going to say to President Putin, as I said before, is that I really think we all need to step back from the edge, and I think Russia needs to step back from the edge,” Johnson told reporters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to speak by telephone with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, a State Department spokesman said.

At a meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday, at the request of Washington, the Russian ambassador said that the West had confirmed that the West had deployed 100,000 troops near Ukraine without confirmation from international organizations and that there was no evidence that it was planning military action.

The U.S. said the war was “provocative” because Russia was frequently deploying troops on its territory and the crisis in Ukraine was a domestic problem.

China’s ambassador to the United Nations said China did not see Russian troops as a threat near the border and urged all parties not to aggravate the situation.

Russia, despite seizing Crimea in Ukraine in 2014 and backing pro-Russian rebels fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine, refuses to carry out further attacks, demanding comprehensive security guarantees including NATO’s commitment not to accept Ukraine.

RUSSIAN MONEY ABROAD

Putin’s opponents have long called on the West to cut back on Russian money, even as oligarchs and Russian officials continue to show wealth in Europe’s most luxurious destinations.

Washington and London refused to nominate whom they wanted to address.

“The people we have identified are in or near the Kremlin’s inner circle and are tasked with making government decisions or are at least complicit in the Kremlin’s unstable behavior,” a U.S. official said in Washington.

“Putin’s friends will not be able to use their spouses or other family members to avoid sanctions as an option. The sanctions would remove them from the international financial system and ensure that they and their families cannot enjoy the benefits of parking.

Britain has already imposed sanctions on 180 people and about 48 entities since Russia took over Crimea, including six people close to Putin. Penalties allow Britain to ban individuals and allow them to freeze their assets.

However, Britain has in the past taken a softer stance than the US on the Russian business elite, such as Igor Sechin, Rosneft’s chief oil producer, Igor Sechin, one of Russia’s most powerful men punished by Washington in 2014.

The European Union, with many of its members in NATO, has threatened Russia with “severe political consequences and high economic costs” for a new accession to Ukraine.

Some NATO countries, including the United States and Britain, have sent weapons to Ukraine, although they have refused to send troops there to fight.

Poland said it had supplied tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition to nearby Ukraine and was awaiting a response. The White House on Monday accused Russia of raising troops in Belarus as it organizes Russian exercises and borders Poland and Ukraine.

Europe’s dependence on Russia’s energy supply weakens the West’s hand. A senior EU official said the future of a major gas pipeline from Russia was at a standstill.

The US has asked major Qatari gas producers and other major exporters to consider whether they could supply more to Europe.