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Britain Sanctions 5 Banks and Gennady Timchenko, Johnson Says

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russia was heading towards "pariah status". (AFP)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russia was heading towards "pariah status". (AFP)
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Britain Sanctions 5 Banks and Gennady Timchenko, Johnson Says

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russia was heading towards "pariah status". (AFP)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russia was heading towards "pariah status". (AFP)

Britain on Tuesday slapped sanctions on five Russian banks and three men, including Gennady Timchenko, who have close links to Vladimir Putin after the Kremlin chief ordered the deployment of troops to two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russia was heading towards "pariah status" and that the world must now brace for the next stage of Putin's plan, saying that the Kremlin was laying the ground for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Britain has threatened to cut off Russian companies' access to US dollars and British pounds, blocking them from raising capital in London and to expose what Johnson calls the "Russian doll" of property and company ownership.

Johnson told parliament that five banks - Rossiya, IS Bank, GenBank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank - were being sanctioned, along with three people - Timchenko, Igor Rotenberg and Boris Rotenberg.

"This is the first tranche, the first barrage of what we are prepared to do," Johnson said.

"Any assets they hold in the UK will be frozen and the individuals concerned will be banned from traveling here," Johnson said of the individuals being sanctioned.

Some British lawmakers asked Johnson to be tougher on Russian money, even demanding that Russian oligarchs be ejected from Britain and Russian money be dug out of the City of London.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have flowed into London and Britain's overseas territories from Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and London has become the Western city of choice for the super-wealthy of Russia and other former Soviet republics.

Timchenko

Britain said that Timchenko, one of the founders of Gunvor trading company, was a major shareholder in Bank Rossiya, itself a stakeholder in National Media Group which supported the destabilization of Ukraine after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

"Bank Rossiya has supported the consolidation of Crimea into the Russian Federation by integrating the financial system following the annexation of Crimea," Britain said.

Timchenko, who Forbes says is worth 23.5 billion pounds, is a close ally of Russian President Putin, as are the Rotenbergs, Johnson said.

"Boris Rotenberg... is a prominent Russian businessman with close personal ties to (the) Russian President," Britain said. "Igor Rotenberg is a prominent Russian businessmen with close familial ties to President Putin."

The US Treasury has also sanctioned the Rotenbergs as being billionaires who have made fortunes under Putin.

Britain has threatened to cut off Russian companies' access to US dollars and British pounds, blocking them from raising capital in London and to expose what Johnson calls the "Russian doll" of property and company ownership.

"We must now brace ourselves for the next possible stages of Putin's plan," Johnson said. "Putin is establishing the pretext for a full scale offensive."

Russia's once mighty superpower economy is now smaller than Italy's based on IMF data, with a nominal GDP of around $1.7 trillion.

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Suspected North Korean Hypersonic Missile Exploded, South Korea Says 

Contrails believed to be created by a North Korean missile are observed over seas off Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (Yonhap via AP)
Contrails believed to be created by a North Korean missile are observed over seas off Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (Yonhap via AP)
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Suspected North Korean Hypersonic Missile Exploded, South Korea Says 

Contrails believed to be created by a North Korean missile are observed over seas off Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (Yonhap via AP)
Contrails believed to be created by a North Korean missile are observed over seas off Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (Yonhap via AP)

A suspected hypersonic missile launched by North Korea exploded in flight on Wednesday, South Korea's military said, a development that comes as North Korea is protesting the regional deployment of a US aircraft carrier for a trilateral military drill with South Korea and Japan.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that North Korea launched a ballistic missile from its capital region around 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday. It said the missile was fired toward the North’s eastern waters, but the launch ended in failure.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff later told South Korean journalists that the missile blew up as it flew over the waters of the North's eastern coastal Wonsan city. It said the fragments of the missile were scattered in the waters, up to 250 kilometers (155 miles) away from the launch site. No damages were immediately reported.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff suspected the weapon is a solid-fueled hypersonic missile. It said Wednesday's launch spewed larger amounts of smoke than normal launches because of a possible engine fault. It said the test was probably aimed to improve the capacity of a hypersonic weapons system.

The contents of the background briefing was shared with foreign media.

The US Indo-Pacific Command said it condemns the North's launch though it didn't pose an immediate threat to the US territory or its allies. It said the US commitments to the defense of South Korea and Japan “remain ironclad.”

Japan’s Defense Ministry said earlier Wednesday that it also detected a suspected ballistic missile launch by North Korea.

Since 2021, North Korea has performed a series of hypersonic missile tests in an apparent bid to penetrate its rivals' missile defense shields. But foreign experts question if North Korean hypersonic vehicles have proved their desired speed and maneuverability during test-flights.

In recent years, North Korea has also been pushing to develop more weapons with solid propellants, Such propellants make launches harder to detect than liquid-propellant missiles, which must be fueled before liftoff.

The North’s reported launch also came as the rival Koreas are engaged in Cold War-style, psychological campaigns such as balloon flying and loudspeaker broadcasts in past weeks.

South Korea said Tuesday night that North Korea floated huge balloons carrying trash across the border for a second consecutive day. South Korean media reported Wednesday that about 100 North Korean balloons with bags of waste papers eventually fell on South Korean territory.

North Korea has conducted a series of trash-carrying balloon launches toward South Korea since late May in what it calls a tit-for-tat response to South Korean activists flying political leaflets via their own balloons. On June 9, South Korea briefly restarted propaganda broadcasts from its border loudspeakers for the first time in years in response. South Korea's military said Monday said it was ready to turn on its loudspeakers again.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt arrived in South Korea on Saturday and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol boarded the carrier on Tuesday — the first sitting South Korean president to board a US aircraft carrier since 1994.

Yoon told American and South Korean troops on the carrier that their countries’ alliance is the world’s greatest and can defeat any enemy. He said the US carrier is to leave Wednesday for the South Korea-US-Japan drill, dubbed “Freedom Edge.” The training is aimed at sharpening the countries’ combined response in various areas of operation, including air, sea and cyberspace.

North Korea’s vice defense minister, Kim Kang Il, on Monday called the US aircraft carrier’s deployment “reckless” and “dangerous.” North Korea has previously called major US-South Korean drills invasion rehearsals and reacted with missile tests.

Seoul officials said the upcoming South Korea-US-Japan training is meant to strengthen the three countries' response capabilities against North Korea's evolving nuclear threats at a time when the North is advancing its military partnerships with Russia.

During a summit in Pyongyang last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a deal requiring each country to provide aid if attacked and vowed to boost other cooperation. Observers say the accord represents the strongest connection between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.

The United States and its partners believe North Korea has been providing Russia with much-needed conventional arms for its war in Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance.

North Korea’s reported missile launch is its first weapons demonstrations since Kim Jong Un on May 30 supervised the firing of nuclear-capable multiple rocket launchers to simulate a preemptive attack on South Korea. The drill came days after North Korea’s attempt to put its second spy satellite into orbit ended in failure, with its rocket carrying that satellite exploding in mid-air soon after liftoff.

Since 2022, North Korea has sharply increased the pace of weapons tests to increase its nuclear attack capabilities to cope with what it calls a deepening US military threat. Foreign experts say North Korea eventually aims to use its larger nuclear arsenal to wrest greater concessions from the US when diplomacy resumes.