Reuters published the following article:

Britain on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Gennady Timchenko and two other billionaires with close links to Vladimir Putin after the Russian president ordered 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.

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

But Johnson refrained from imposing limits on Russia's biggest state banks, cutting off capital for Russian companies or ejecting other prominent so-called Russian oligarchs from Britain.

"This is the first tranche, the first barrage of what we are prepared to do," Johnson said. "It is absolutely vital that we hold in reserve further powerful sanctions...in view of what President Putin may do next."

"We want to stop Russian companies from being able to raise funds in sterling or indeed in dollars," Johnson said.