MUNICH: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson used a speech in Germany Saturday to demand Western unity over Russia’s threats to Ukraine, warning any invasion would send a “shock” around the world including in Asia.
Western sanctions in response to Russian military action against Ukraine would make it “impossible” for Moscow to access the City of London’s deep capital markets, he also said at the Munich Security Conference.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions remain opaque, Johnson said, “but the omens are grim, and that is why we must stand strong together”.
The prime minister noted that a succession of Western leaders, including himself, had visited Kyiv in recent weeks to reassure Ukraine of their support.
“How hollow, how meaningless, how insulting those words would seem if, at the very moment when their sovereignty and independence is imperilled, we simply look away,“ he told leaders and ministers at the high-profile conference, which Russia is boycotting.
“If Ukraine is invaded, the shock will echo around the world,“ Johnson added, warning in particular of the impact on Taiwan, shortly after Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi addressed the conference.
Russian success in such an invasion would send the message to every other power that “aggression pays and that might is right”, he said, urging Europe to commit to “strategic endurance” in its energy policy, diplomacy and military budgets.
But should an invasion happen, Britain stands ready with the United States and European Union to impose a punishing package of sanctions, Johnson said.
“We will sanction Russian individuals and companies of strategic importance to the Russian state, and we will make it impossible for them to raise finance on the London capital markets,“ he said.
The UK government has long been accused of turning a blind eye to lucrative flows of Russian-sourced money through London, some of which has ended up in Conservative coffers, although Johnson's party says all its donations are legal.
Amid accusations that the Putin regime has vast wealth hidden abroad, British law on company and property ownership has also long benefited investors who want to keep their involvement a secret.
But Johnson said Britain intended to “open up the Matryoshka dolls of Russian-owned companies and Russian-owned entities, to find the ultimate beneficiaries within”. - AFP