Sanctions

Jonathan Djanogly Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd February 2022 Commons Chamber

[James Cleverly]

I thank my right hon. Friend for giving me the opportunity to make clear our position. If this has not become clear to the House, let me make it clear now: we intend to escalate these sanctions—to ratchet up these sanctions—in response to what has already happened in order to deter further aggression and in order to stimulate Putin to withdraw the troops from Ukraine, take them away from the border and send them back home to their families and barracks in other parts of Russia.

[Mr Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon) (Con)]

Will the Minister give way?

[James Cleverly]

I have got to make some progress, but I will give way again.

[Mr Djanogly]

I thank the Minister for kindly giving way. May I ask him to explain that point a little further? The items of sanction today were under the existing legislation, and what is being proposed today will enable further types of sanction. Obviously they will be worked on with foreign Governments, but will he also be looking at further sanctions from a UK perspective at the same time as looking at this with other countries?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon) (Con)]

Can I say how heartening it has been to hear so much support for the brave Ukrainians who really need our help at this difficult time? When I looked at the regulations, a thought process arose and my key question was if, or to what extent, it was correct for us to amend existing regulations specifically to deal with Russia and especially those connected with Russia. I appreciate that there are some complicated questions to be asked here. For instance, to what extent are the actions of Russia interchangeable with those of President Putin? Can we say that what the kleptocratic dictatorship that he has established and developed, supported by a coterie of sycophantic oligarchs, wants is the same as what Russia wants? I think that most people, on any rational assessment, would say yes. In Russia, civil society, democracy, a free press and financial regulations have all gone to virtually nothing, while corruption, police statism, rotten judges and political gangsterism have reached new heights. It is frankly a brave person who now stands up in Russia to make any kind of criticism of President Putin, who sees himself in place for life.

There are other questions that go to assessing the status of Russian individuals, many thousands of whom live in the UK. Some of them may well be supportive of Putin’s regime, but there are many others who are not. In fact, many Russians are here to escape the clutches of Putin’s regime. On the other hand, the sources of those people’s wealth may lead to yet more questions concerning criminality, albeit criminality that is unconnected to Putin or indeed Ukraine. I urge the use of caution and due process in the way that those Russians here are treated. For instance, just throwing them all in prison, as the UK did with all the Germans resident here at the beginning of world war two, is not going to work and would not enhance our democratic reputation. On the other hand, there comes a tipping point towards war when individual interests are to some degree going to be affected or subsumed just by being a citizen of the country concerned. It seems that these regulations are effectively preparing the ground for that to happen.

I support these proposals and feel that ultimately, in the circumstances, they are appropriate. Moreover, I am ever more of the belief that the lacklustre response of the UK, the EU and the US to Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia and its 2014 Ukraine incursion is one of the main reasons that we are here today. It was lacklustre in terms of sanctions and also of military and economic support. Ukraine’s and Georgia’s borders were accepted by Russia—and indeed by the world community—and we should have been much tougher in protecting their integrity and their sovereignty.

The problem with dealing with dictatorships is not a new one. If they see a gap, they will take it; if they see a weakness, they will exploit it; and they can generally move faster than democracies. Russia clearly wants to have a series of weak, poor, corrupt countries along its border and to act like it was still 1980. We cannot let that happen. These regulations will provide the framework for sanctions, but not the sanctions themselves. That will depend on the ability of western-facing democracies to act together. This is now the challenge for our Government, but I have to say that, on their performance so far, I believe that it is one they can and will deliver.