UK law firms trying to protect Russian oligarchs from sanctions could face restrictions, Number 10 suggests

There have been suggestions that lawyers may be preventing sanctions being placed on oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin, as the West has sought to restrict Russia’s economic and cultural influence following last week’s invasion.

The Prime Minister told Cabinet this morning that Putin has made a “colossal mistake” with his incursions after the country’s people had “put up a fierce resistance in defence of their homeland”.

This afternoon, Downing Street suggested that any law firms seeking to protect Russian oligarchs from sanctions could find themselves targeted.

“We will certainly keep all options under review,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.

“This is an incredibly serious situation and we want to take all possible steps to ratchet up the pressure on Putin and his regime to get him to step back from this path.

“Individuals or businesses that are seeking to facilitate that regime and Putin’s actions, to continue down this path of violence, we think should step back from that as well.”

The Prime Minister will travel to Poland and Estonia tomorrow for meetings with officials and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Meanwhile, one of the most prominent Russian figures in the UK has called on Vladimir Putin to put a halt to the invasion.

Evgeny Lebedev writing in his newspaper the Evening Standard this afternoon, told the Russian leader to use the negotiations to “bring this terrible conflict” to an end.

In a statement published alongside a photograph of a paramedic performing CPR on a girl injured by shelling, oligarch Lord Lebedev said: “On this page are the final minutes of a six-year-old child fatally injured by shells that struck her Mariupol apartment block on Sunday.

“She is still wearing her pink jacket as medics fight to save her. But it is too late. Other children, and other families, are suffering similar fates across Ukraine.

“As a Russian citizen I plead with you to stop Russians killing their Ukrainian brothers and sisters.”

“As a British citizen I ask you to save Europe from war. As a Russian patriot I plead that you prevent any more young Russian soldiers from dying needlessly. As a citizen of the world I ask you to save the world from annihilation,” he added.