UK imposes asset freeze on Russia's Putin and Lavrov

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain imposed sanctions to freeze the assets of Russia's President Vladimir Putin for launching an invasion of Ukraine, and of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who it said was a key decision maker in Russia's government, according to its UK sanctions list.

Earlier, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had said that London was pushing reluctant allies to cut off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payments system.

"We would like to go further, we'd like to do the SWIFT system," he said. "If not every country wants them to be thrown out of the SWIFT system, it becomes difficult."