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Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Wednesday, March 16th,

and this is your FT News Briefing.

Chinese stocks revolatile after a new wave of COVID infections hit the country,

and German prosecutors finally charge a major player in the Wirecard fraud scandal.

Plus, Western countries continue to squeeze Russian oligarchs.

Any yachts or bank accounts or business shares they hold in the UK are being frozen.

I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you need to start your day.

The EU and the UK are leveling new sanctions against wealthy Russians and oligarchs close to

Russian President Vladimir Putin. It's part of a continued squeeze on Moscow for its invasion of

Ukraine. To find out more, I'm joined by the FT's Valentina Pop in Brussels. She's our Europe

Express newsletter editor. I'm Valentina. Hi Mark. So, practically speaking, what will

these sanctions do to oligarchs and what will they not be able to do or access, I guess?

So, this is a system that is already in place for several others actually in total in the EU.

It's over 800 Russian individuals. Now, not all of them are oligarchs, but more than a dozen are.

It means that basically they will have their assets frozen, their assets that are based in the EU,

and also that they will be banned from traveling to the EU. And on the UK side, it's exactly the same.

Did the EU and the UK draw out these sanctions together in coordination?

There has been coordination indeed. I mean, not quite as far as drawing them out together,

since you can notice that there are different sequences and they don't all come out at the same time,

but yes, they are coordinating and also with the US quite closely. Valentina, it's been three

...