Russia's billionaires 'horrified' at sanctions threat

The U.S. has already imposed a raft of sanctions against Russian companies and individuals with Britain and the Netherlands pushing for the EU to impose even tougher measures following the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.Additional U.S. measures may be imposed in the next few weeks and financial experts believe Russia's $2 trillion economy could be pushed into recession. According to Igor Bunin, who heads the Center for Political Technology in Moscow, Russia's businessmen may be scared of the sanctions but they are even more scared of Putin.Mr Bunin told Bloomberg.com: 'The economic and business elite is just in horror. 'Nobody will speak out because of the implicit threat of retribution... Any sign of rebellion and they’ll be brought to their knees.'U.S. sanctions, introduced before the MH17 atrocity, have already hit Russian state-run companies as well as several billionaire businessmen close to Putin.OAO Novatek (NVTK), a gas producer partly owned by Putin ally Gennady Timchenko, saw its market value cut by almost $3billion after it was barred from using U.S. debt markets for new financing with maturities longer than 90 days. The owners of SMP Bank and InvestCapitalBank, brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenburg, who are long-time friends and former judo sparring partners of Putin's, have also been blacklisted by the U.S.And last week President Obama banned gunmaker Kalashnikov, which makes the AK-47, from exporting to the U.S. prompting a rush to buy up the remaining supplies.British Prime Minister David Cameron today claimed there was now mounting evidence that separatist rebels in Ukraine shot down the Malaysian Airlines plane with a Russian surface-to-air missile. He said: 'President Putin faces a clear choice in how he decides to respond to this appalling tragedy. I hope he will use this moment to find a path out of this festering and dangerous crisis by ending Russia's support for the separatists.'If he does not change his approach to Ukraine in this then Europe and the West must fundamentally change our approach to Russia.'It is time to make our power, influence and resources felt.'  Yesterday British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said Russia risked becoming a 'pariah state', over its alleged involvement in and reaction to the MH17 atrocity. He acknowledged that London could be affected by any restrictions on the flow of Russian money, and insisted other European countries would also have to take some of the pain of a more punitive sanctions regime - which could potentially include EU-wide restrictions on arms exports, a step the UK has already taken.Mr Hammond said: 'We have tools in our toolbox, we have levers which we can apply to Russia. We can inflict damage on the Russian economy.'He acknowledged that 'financial sanctions will have some impact on London' and insisted that as part of the package of sanctions 'the pain has got to be shared across the European Union'.French arms sales and German dependence on Russian fossil fuels have been seen as possible barriers to tougher sanctions.(dailymail.co.uk)Bakudaily.az