By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said sanctions from western countries on Russian businesses and oligarchs may already apply to the business interests they have in The Bahamas even though local authorities have implemented no sanctions of their own.

The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and a number of other countries have sanctioned Russia for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

“The issue of what to do is probably (going to) be driven by the practicalities of this. One is the relationship with the United States and the European Union and then secondly our financial services sector,” Mr Mitchell told reporters yesterday.

“From what I’ve seen, there was a circular in my briefing from the lawyers, the Bahamian lawyers or the Attorney General’s Office, which is that many of the banks and trust companies here are already dealing with individuals who have been sanctioned and institutions that have been sanctioned as if sanctions have been imposed by The Bahamas government. And that is because in their home countries they may run afoul of the law if they do not apply the sanctions that have been applied in their home countries. So, that may already be happening in The Bahamas and it’s a question of catching up so to speak.

“Those await formal decisions that’s beyond my remit at the moment. Obviously we are concerned that we line up because this is what is really happening now, people have to line up on whose side you’re on, whether you’re on the good guys, bad guys side and our allies, the United States and the west, and so that’s where we’re lining up and we have to do in my view things which are consummate with those facts.”

He also said: “The question of sanctions is really what is being begged at the moment and that has to do with the Prime Minister’s statement at CARICOM which is to see where, in the context of the CARICOM relationships, the other countries are gonna go with regard to sanctions. What I know is that it’s an evolving story and I’m briefing the parliamentary group this evening, the Cabinet in the morning and it’s an evolving story about what happens from there.”

Mr Mitchell could not say what the country will do about a Russian tanker that was denied entry into Canada and reportedly arrived in The Bahamas yesterday. According to Reuters, the Liberia-flagged Sovcomflot-owned oil tanker, SCF Neva, abruptly changed course and arrived in The Bahamas while carrying bunker fuel for Canada’s Irving Oil.