• today sanctions hit Putin’s financial network, including ex-wife and cousins – tightening the vice on the President and his inner circle
• Putin’s official assets are modest, with his lifestyle funded by a cabal of family, friends and elites
• the UK has now sanctioned more than 1,000 individuals and 100 entities, including oligarchs worth £117 billion

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is today (Friday 13 May) announcing fresh sanctions on Putin’s ‘wallet’ of family and friends– those whom he rewards with state positions and wealth in return for their undying loyalty.

Official records list modest assets for President Putin including: a small flat in St Petersburg, 2 Soviet-era cars from the 1950s, a trailer, and a small garage.

In reality, Putin relies on his network of family, childhood friends, and selected elite who have benefited from his rule and in turn support his lifestyle. Their reward is influence over the affairs of the Russian state that goes far beyond their formal positions.

Today’s sanctions will hit this cabal who owe Putin their wealth and power, and in turn support Putin and his war machine.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said:

We are exposing and targeting the shady network propping up Putin’s luxury lifestyle and tightening the vice on his inner circle. We will keep going with sanctions on all those aiding and abetting Putin’s aggression until Ukraine prevails.

Putin’s lavish lifestyle has regularly been on display, with reports exposing links to a £566 million yacht and the $1 billion ‘Putin’s Palace’ – officially owned by close associate, Arkady Rotenberg, who was sanctioned in December 2020.

His family members form a core contingent of his inner circle – receiving positions of power due to their affiliation to the regime. The individuals sanctioned today include:

• Alina Kabaeva, a retired Olympic gymnast. Kabaeva has risen to become Chair of the Board of the National Media Group, reportedly the largest private Russian media company. She is alleged to have a close personal relationship with Putin, and previously sat as a Deputy in the Duma for Putin’s United Russia

• Anna Zatseplina, grandmother of Alina Kabaeva and associate of Gennady Timchenko – a longstanding Putin associate, sanctioned by the UK on 22 February 2022, from whom she has reportedly received a luxury flat in Moscow

• Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, former First Lady of the Russian Federation and ex-wife of Putin. Since her divorce from Putin in 2014, Ocheretnaya has benefited from preferential business relationships with state-owned entities

• Igor Putin, first cousin of President Vladimir Putin, and a Russian businessman. Igor Putin is Director of Pechenga International Sea Port

• Mikhail Putin, a Russian businessman and relative of President Vladimir Putin. Mikhail Putin is Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of SOGAZ Insurance and Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Gazprom

• Roman Putin, first cousin once removed of President Vladimir Putin. Roman Putin is publicly open about his relation to Putin and emphasises how this family connection enabled his company, Putin Consulting, to help foreign investors in Russia

• Mikhail Shelomov, a Russian business owner and Putin’s first cousin, once removed. Shelomov’s company Akcept LLC has allegedly shared employees with Binom JSC, the firm registered as owning ‘Putin’s Palace’. Shelomov, through his firm Akcept LLC, is also a shareholder in Bank Rossiya, a bank with close Kremlin links, and run by key Putin lieutenants, sanctioned by the UK on 22 February 2022

Putin has also routinely placed his confidants and loyal supporters into strategic positions within the State, expanding his personal reach into all corners of the Russian economy. Those sanctioned today are:

• Alexander Plekhov, a close friend of Putin. He has benefited from his relationship with Putin and his company Vital Development Corporation has benefited from significant state patronage

• Mikhail Klishin, an Executive in Bank Rossiya, and a member of the Board of Directors at SOGAZ

• Vladimir Kolbin, the son of Putin’s childhood friend and alleged business associate, Peter Kolbin. Vladimir has benefited from and supported the Government of Russia acting as General Director of Gelendzhik Seaport LLC

• Yuri Shamalov, son of Nikolai Shamalov (sanctioned by the UK in 2014), and brother of Putin’s former son-in-law, Kirill (sanctioned by the UK on 24 February 2022). Yuri is a member of the new elite of children of Putin’s closest associates, and has risen rapidly to become President of Gazfond, and Member of the Board of Directors of Gazprombank

• Viktor Khmarin is a Russian lawyer and businessman, who is a friend and relative-by-marriage of Putin. Khmarin has owned a number of businesses including LLC NefteProduktServis, which operated in the Russian energy sector

Today’s sanctions isolate the family members and financiers deep within Putin’s inner circle, compounding the pressure on Putin as he continues his senseless invasion into Ukraine.

Since the invasion, the UK has sanctioned over 1,000 individuals and 100 entities, including hitting oligarchs with a net global worth of over £117 billion.

Asset freeze

An asset freeze prevents any UK citizen, or any business in the UK, from dealing with any funds or economic resources which are owned, held or controlled by the designated person. UK financial sanctions apply to all persons within the territory and territorial sea of the UK and to all UK persons, wherever they are in the world. It also prevents funds or economic resources being provided to or for the benefit of the designated person.

Travel ban

A travel ban means that the designated person must be refused leave to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom, providing the individual is an excluded person under section 8B of the Immigration Act 1971.

Transport sanctions

Recently introduced powers make it a criminal offence for any Russian aircraft to fly or land in the UK, and give the government powers to remove aircraft belonging to designated Russian individuals and entities from the UK aircraft register, even if the sanctioned individual is not on board. Russian ships are also banned from UK ports.

• The Foreign Secretary is in Germany from Thursday to Sunday to attend the G7 and NATO Foreign Ministers’ Meetings
• She will use both meetings to galvanise work with allies to win the battle for Ukraine, saying that the only acceptable scenario is victory for the Ukrainian people
• She will say that sanctions should not be lifted until there is a complete Russian withdrawal and peace is agreed

The Foreign Secretary has called on international allies to go “further and faster” together to support the Ukrainian resistance and constrain any further aggression by the Putin war machine.

At a meeting of G7 Foreign Ministers on Thursday night she urged partners to commit to further waves of sanctions for as long as Russian troops are in Ukraine, and to agree that sanctions must remain in place until there is a complete Russian withdrawal and peace agreed.

The Foreign Secretary said that Ukraine also needs a clear pathway to NATO-standard equipment. This includes the immediate provision of NATO-standard artillery shells, which the Ukrainian military needs urgently, the provision of training and expertise by NATO members, as well as a plan set out by NATO allies by the end of the summer for a transition over to this equipment.

She also talked about how the G7 must help Ukraine rebuild from the war, building on the principle of a Marshall Plan for Ukraine, and provide financial and technical assistance.

At the G7 on Thursday, the Foreign Secretary said:

Putin is humiliating himself on the world stage. We must ensure he faces a defeat in Ukraine that denies him any benefit and ultimately constrains further aggression…

To help Ukraine, we need to go further and faster.

The best long term security for Ukraine will come from it being able to defend itself. That means providing Ukraine with a clear pathway to NATO-standard equipment…

Sanctions must remain in place while Russian troops are in Ukraine and peace is threatened… We must never lift sanctions in sensitive areas including critical technology like quantum.

Today (Friday 13th May), the G7 Foreign Ministers will be joined by the Ukrainian and Moldovan Foreign Ministers at the meeting in Schleswig-Holstein where they will discuss the current state of play in Ukraine, and how the G7 can support these countries in their fight against Russian aggression.

On Saturday (14th) the Foreign Secretary will travel to Berlin to meet NATO Foreign Ministers for an informal meeting. The Foreign Secretary will underline that the UK and its allies must develop a strengthened and modernised NATO with a global outlook, ready to tackle global threats.

The visit follows the Prime Minister’s visits to Sweden and Finland earlier this week (11th May) to sign historic declarations with Sweden and Finland to reinforce their security and fortify Europe’s defences.

Students are to benefit from updated Ofqual guidance on how to make exams and other assessments as accessible as possible to all. 

The new guidance is published today following a 12-week consultation, in which there was strong support from respondents, students and their representatives, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). 

A range of SEND groups responded to this consultation. They include the Autism Education Trust, British Dyslexia Association, National Deaf Children’s Society, National Autistic Society, the Royal National Institute of Blind People and BATOD (British Association of Teachers of the Deaf).

Ofqual received 163 responses to this consultation. Of the 125 online respondents, 111 agreed or strongly agreed that the draft guidance will help awarding organisations to design and develop assessments that are as accessible as possible for learners.

The guidance supports awarding organisations to design assessments to meet rules on accessibility. 

The guidance published today explains that, in their exams and assessments, awarding organisations should:

• use accessible and appropriate language  
• use clear and consistent layout 
• use source material, context, images and colour in ways that do not disadvantage students 
• consider how Reasonable Adjustments could be made to the exam or assessment to make sure disabled students are not disadvantaged

Today, the decisions following consultation are published. These explain that a qualification that requires candidates to have a command of complex language must continue to test students on this. For example, an English exam might test use of complex sentence structures, or analogy, inference and allusion. Conversely, maths papers testing numeracy should not contain overly complex text. 

Ofqual Chief Regulator Dr Jo Saxton said: 

It’s crucial that assessments in every subject have integrity and are accessible, to give all students a fair opportunity to demonstrate what they know and can do, and to achieve results which reflect this. 

Exams and assessments must remain rigorous but must not unfairly disadvantage any student because of poor design or presentation. 

This isn’t about making exams and assessments easier, but about breaking down the barriers that stop young people achieving their true potential and making sure that exams actually test the things they are designed to test.

If an exam is intended to assess understanding of complex language, then of course the questions will use complex language. But if an exam is assessing numerical skills, it does not need to include complex language which could get in the way of some students showing those skills.

This will be particularly important for students with SEND, but actually it matters for all students. If students know their subject matter and are well-prepared, they should be able to get on and demonstrate what they know and can do in their assessments, so that the examiner can assess it. This requires questions and tasks in all subjects, however demanding they are, to be framed clearly and unambiguously.

Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said:

We welcome these decisions which affect the regulation of written exams. It is right that exams are as accessible as possible for everyone, and it is therefore good that Ofqual is supporting exam boards to make papers more accessible. Questions should not rely on learner’s cultural capital, nor should they be overly wordy, but should test the knowledge or skill that is being assessed. This should help to make exam results more valid in the future.

Caireen Sutherland, Royal National Institute of Blind People Head of Education, said:

It is very important that exams, as a crucial part of the education system, are fully accessible if all children and young people with vision impairment are to achieve their full potential. We work closely with Ofqual and in previous consultations they have taken on board RNIB advice and reflected it in their guidance. This included involving Qualified Teachers of Vision Impairment (QTVIs) in reviewing exam grades. We were pleased to have the opportunity to provide feedback as part of their recent consultation.

Paul Simpson and Teresa Quail, co-National Executive Officers from BATOD (British Association of Teachers of the Deaf), said:

BATOD has for many years had a strong and productive relationship with Ofqual and has found all colleagues receptive to our concerns and willing to do what is possible while maintaining the integrity of the examinations. For this reason we warmly welcome the publication of the accessibility guidance.

The Autism Education Trust said:

The Autism Education Trust welcomes and supports the Ofqual Accessibility Guidance to make exams and other written assessments more accessible for children and young people with special educational needs.

This is a positive step towards creating a more inclusive education system that recognises that adjustments must be made to support the needs of all autistic children and young people to reach their potential and receive a fair chance to demonstrate their skills and abilities in exams and assessments.

This new guidance will also support students, including those from other countries, for whom English is an additional language.