A bill is expected to be passed on Wednesday, enabling New Zealand to impose sanctions on people, services, companies and assets related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Bill does not impose blanket sanctions on all Russian people/operations in New Zealand.
All parties in Parliament support the Russia Sanctions Bill, so it will be passed under urgency.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, “This Bill is specific to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and will allow new sanctions to be applied as approved by the Foreign Minister.
“Those sanctions can be imposed on people, services, companies, and assets related to those in Russia who are responsible for or associated with the invasion, or that are of economic or strategic relevance to Russia, including oligarchs.
“A public sanctions register will be set up to list every individual, entity, asset, or service that is sanctioned.
“The sanctions will enable the Government to freeze assets located in New Zealand. Those sanctioned will also be prevented from moving assets to New Zealand or using our financial system as a back door to get around sanctions increasingly imposed by other countries.
“Sanctions could also apply to trade, and financial institutions as well as stopping the likes of Russian super yachts, ships and aircraft from entering New Zealand waters or airspace.
“The Bill also allows for sanctions to be imposed against other states complicit with Russia’s illegal actions, such as Belarus.”
The plan is for the first tranche of sanctions to take effect mid-next week, and the second tranche a few weeks later.
Ardern said the first tranche includes expanding New Zealand’s travel ban list (see existing list here), freezing assets and sanctions on Russian banks. The second tranche will be a “more forensic analysis of Russian investment in New Zealand”.
She said the Bill will keep the sanctions in place for three years, and provide for the renewal of sanctions.
The Bill comes further to actions New Zealand has already taken against Russia, which include targeted travel bans, prohibiting exports to the military and suspending bilateral foreign ministry consultations.
The Government has also provided an initial $2 million in humanitarian aid to help Ukrainians, and prioritised Ukrainian visa applications.
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said, as a small country that is a supporter of the multilateral system to uphold peace and security, New Zealand has historically supported sanctions through the United Nations system.
“However, with Russia using its veto as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to prevent any action, even in the face of overwhelming opposition to Russia’s war, New Zealand has decided that a targeted sanctions bill is required to show our condemnation in the strongest possible terms.
“New Zealand continues to call on Russia to do what is right and immediately cease military operations in Ukraine and permanently withdraw to avoid a catastrophic loss of innocent life.”
The Government is also continuing to seek advice on a full autonomous sanctions regime. Ardern said measures in the Russia Sanctions Bill are stronger than those which would've been allowed for under an autonomous sanctions regime.
26 Comments
New Zealand legislating an autonomous sanctions regime specifically against Russia is a hasty, half-baked exercise in adhockery. But it is more than that: it is a copout that enables New Zealand to avoid the danger of upsetting its main trading partner, China, or its main chum, the United States, which has an inglorious record of invading other countries to impose its Pax Americana.
For 70 years New Zealand has supported the United Nations, and confined itself to implementing sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council. The UN's great flaw is the power of veto the five 'Great Powers' that founded the UN after World War II awarded themselves.
New Zealand could have both supported the United Nations and given itself the power of imposing autonomous sanctions if the law were written to allow such sanctions only if a sanctions motion had been passed by a majority vote on the UN Security Council, then vetoed by any one of the permanent members. Thus New Zealand's autonomous sanctions would be seen to be upholding the majority will of the UN Security Council, or General Assembly, and defying that antidemocratic veto.
However, had New Zealand passed such a law, affecting all five permanent members, it would have been faced with uncomfortable decisions the next time the United States chose to wage war against another country (Iraq, Afghanistan), or the next time the United States used its Security Council veto to assist apartheid Israel in its endless oppression of the Palestinians.
“The sanctions will enable the Government to freeze assets located in New Zealand. Those sanctioned will also be prevented from moving assets to New Zealand or using our financial system as a back door to get around sanctions increasingly imposed by other countries. "
Yes, we can't be someone's mule.
Suggest that if China tries this, the world will act. Putin has galvanised the world to reconsider their approach to oppressive regimes that threaten global stability.
I put Xi along with Putin here, different methods, but just as much risk to the world. China is dangerous and the less we depend on them the better.
This seems like a great way to foster an "us-vs-them" scenario that only emboldens Putin's domestic power: look, the world will alienate you! A Russian businessman can't really help being Russian. Penalising him for that is unfair, albeit we are in extremis. Many historians credit the sanctions placed on Germany at the Treaty of Versailles for sowing the seeds of WWII. We should be careful not to encourage the Russian people to simply bind tighter to Putin (or Putin Mk. II in 20 years), since we're really giving them little alternative.
Some good argument there certainly. Those pushed into a corner can certainly turn at bay, giving rise & fuel to such as fascism. But in comparison to the doomed & hapless Weimar Republic it is markedly different now, in these modern times. You see up until Putin, Russia was enjoying liberties and luxuries unheard since the Bolsheviks took over in 1917. That can hardly have been forgotten. If there was once Tsars and aristocracy now there is a Red Tsar and oligarchs. As well internet and all the associated attachments shed light daily on global life, whereas those activities were shuttered behind the iron curtain, well and truly. Putin is fast taking Russia back to the old swamp. The people might not exactly want to buy into that like they were forced to for nigh on 100 years.
Lol, Labour policy was to only sanction when the UN voted to sanction. Russia has a veto. So, NZ under a Labour Government would never sanction Russia's invasion unless Russia agreed to it. National and Act twice introduced Autonomous Sanctions Bills. Labour and Greens voted them down. These people are really genius's.
And Mahuta, without a shadow of a doubt, the most inept foreign minister NZ has ever had, and her "wall of resistance". A worldwide wall that NZ has propped up with $2m. They gave the Mongrel Mob more.
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