Which London-listed Russian firms could be hit by sanctions?
With Vladimir Putin’s troops massed on the Ukrainian border, governments in the US and Europe have vowed to retaliate by imposing harsh economic restrictions. The British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has warned of “the toughest sanctions regime against Russia we have ever had”.
Of all the countries threatening economic retaliation, the UK has an outsized ability to inflict damage. There is thought to be more Russian gold in London than in any other city in the world. Not only in the Chelsea mansions that house the families of oligarchs, but on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
Since the 1990s, companies whose shares are traded in Moscow have turned to London to raise money through what are known as secondary listings. They range from state-backed oil and gas producers Rosneft and Gazprom, to state-run banks VTB and Sberbank, to independent mining companies like Norilsk Nickel that have no state ownership.
In total, 31 Russian companies are listed on the LSE, with a combined market value of £468bn, according to the data company S&P Global.
The companies are not only a crucial part of the Russian economy, they also directly fund a large part of the Russian state. London-listed Russian oil, gas and mining companies paid their government £39bn in taxes in 2020, according to a Guardian analysis of payments to government disclosures. That revenue is hugely important to the Putin regime: Russia spent £41.7bn on its military in 2019, 11.4% of government spending, according to the World Bank’s latest figures.
Now those companies are under the spotlight, as legislators in London and Washington ponder what form sanctions should take.
A statutory instrument laid before parliament last week has given the UK government the power to impose
Read more on theguardian.com
