William Hague: ‘Price worth paying for Russia action’

William Hague has insisted damage to the British economy from imposing trade sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis would be a “price worth paying”.

The foreign secretary said the EU, US and allies would be bringing forward further travel bans and asset freezes against Moscow over the coming days as punishment for its “bullying” behaviour.

But he warned that “more far-reaching measures” were also being prepared that would have a fundamental impact.

The comments came after US President Barack Obama accused counterpart Vladimir Putin of failing to “lift a finger” to persuade pro-Russian militants to comply with the Geneva deal intended to defuse the situation.

“In fact, there’s strong evidence that they’ve been encouraging the activities in eastern and southern Ukraine,” Obama said on a visit to Malaysia.

Speaking on Sky News’ Murnaghan programme, Mr Hague said discussions were still going on about the repercussions, but “were likely to be an extension of existing sanctions, of the travel bans and asset freezes on individuals”.

“The more names we add to that list the more they do bite in the Russian economy,” he said. “But we are also working on more far-reaching measures of economic, trade and financial sanctions.