The legislation, designed to restrict companies carrying out business and financial transactions that could benefit the Kremlin's war effort, will prevent British law firms from advising Russian companies in some deals. These include advising on trading between global corporations or international money lending, the government said.
But Russian nationals will still be able to have legal representation from U.K. lawyers: ministers reaffirmed the country's commitment to ensuring access to legal support.
"The U.K. legal system underpins many international contracts and businesses, and we will no longer allow Russia to benefit from our knowledge and expertise," Alex Chalk KC, lord chancellor and justice secretary, said.
Britain has historically exported £56 million ($71 million) in services to Russia each year, but the government said the new rules would put an end to this dependency.
"The Russian regime must be held to account for its violation of international law, and these sanctions are increasing the economic pressure to further isolate the Russian government from the rest of the world," Chalk added.
The regulation marks the latest set of sanctions imposed by Britain on Vladimir Putin's regime. The government said that UK-Russia trade worth a total £19 billion has been wholly or partially sanctioned, based on 2021 trade flows.
Britain cut off access for Russia to a range of professional services in September. They included transactional legal advisory services, which the government said would make it difficult for Russian businesses operating internationally.
Elsewhere, the Kremlin has faced a range of wide-ranging set of sanction packages. The government added another five Russian financial institutions to its sanction list in May.
Whitehall placed asset freezes on four more Russian lenders in February. Those measures came on top of existing U.K. sanctions against major lenders including Sberbank and Credit Bank of Moscow, with selected banks removed from the SWIFT international payments system.
And, in March 2022, seven Russian oligarchs — including Roman Abramovich, former owner of Chelsea Football Club — had their assets frozen.
--Additional reporting by Najiyya Budaly. Editing by Ed Harris.
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