The only way these remarks from the highest levels of the United Kingdom might hurt Vladimir Putin is if he dies laughing at them.
While the U.S. is a strong country whose president has, unfortunately, chosen to respond to foreign crises by acting like a mouse, Britain really IS a mouse.
Not only has Britain no power to hurt Russia, Vladimir Putin could bring Britain’s economy to its knees in about five minutes by requiring Russia’s billionaire oligarchs residing in the U.K. to transfer their enormous bank accounts out of Britain and into Russian banks.
Britain’s prime minister really should try to keep his foolish saber-rattling thoughts to himself or the world might lose confidence in him, causing the British pound to collapse even without Putin’s direct efforts.
The importance of the finance industry to UK GDP is overstated, it is about 10% of GDP and only a fraction of that is due to billionaire Russian oligarchs. Cyprus might have had something to fear from the divestment of Russian money, but Britain can more than afford to cut this gangster state off, and the way things are going, its more like, can Britain afford not to? London is a popular playground for Russia’s powerful elite, and it would certainly have more of an effect than any Russian boycott would have on Britain.