Our weak weak sanctions

Stuff reports:

The Government is being urged to step up its sanctions effort and send lethal military equipment to Ukraine, as Russia is accused of committing war crimes. …

National Party foreign affairs spokesman Brownlee said there was a “mismatch” between the sanctions levelled by the Government and the actions of New Zealand’s traditional partners, a gap which needed to be “urgently” remedied.

He said the vast majority of the 488 Russians sanctioned by the Government so far had only been subject to irrelevant travel bans, and he questioned why the Government had so far only placed sanctions on one Russian bank, Promsvyazbank.

“It’s not even Sberbank, which is the biggest bank in Russia … There’s absolutely no clarity here about what process is being used by MFAT to determine who is an associate of Mr Putin.”

He said the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and European Union had frozen the assets of Russia’s major banks, institutions and individuals, hampering Russia’s ability to finance its war.

Travel bans in response to horrific war crimes. It’s beyond pathethic.