The Morrison government has slapped fresh sanctions on Russian oligarchs, including the prominent billionaire owner of Chelsea football club, Roman Abramovich.
But analysts monitoring the sanctions crackdown over Russia's invasion of Ukraine say the response is unlikely to exact significant financial pressure against those targeted.
This is because Russian oligarchs typically don't store a high proportion or any of their wealth in Australia, compared to Europe.
Instead, the move is being viewed as one of solidarity to avoid Australia becoming a safe haven for the financial assets of Russian oligarchs being targeted by Western allies.
Curtin University associate professor Alexey Muraviev said Australia's response was politically significant, despite not imposing significant costs on the oligarchs targeted.
“It is not going to have any profound effect on the well-being or the situation concerning the oligarchs,” he told SBS News.
“But it is one of those signals they are receiving that if they want to go to any Western-type nation the door is now closed for them.”
Australia's latest round of sanctions includes more than 30 Russian oligarchs, prominent business people and their immediate family members.
It also covers the CEO of Russian multinational energy corporation Gazprom, the chair of Russian defence conglomerate Rostec, the head of state-controlled oil pipeline company Transneft, the chairman of a development bank and the CEO of an investment fund.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne said: "the sanctions reinforce Australia's commitment to sanction those people who have amassed vast personal wealth and are of economic and strategic significance to Russia."
But Dr William Stoltz, senior Adviser for Public Policy at the ANU National Security College in Canberra, said the reality is the impact of Australia's response would be limited.
“It’s probably unlikely these individuals have a significant proportion of their wealth in Australia - the extent to which these cause them pain,” he told SBS News.
"They’ll be less concerned with Australia’s sanctions on them as individuals than the sanctions they were already experiencing from the UK and Europe."
The move follows similar action against Mr Abramovich from Britain as part of sanctions against seven wealthy Russians, because of their links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Unlike Australia's response, Britain’s sanctions actions will have real consequences, placing Abramovich's plans to sell Chelsea on ice.
Last week Mr Abramovich announced he would sell the football club and donate money from the sale to help victims of the war in Ukraine.
The British government has said it is open to the Premier League powerhouse being sold as long as Mr Abramovich himself did not benefit.
Britain has described Mr Abramovich as "a prominent Russian businessman and pro-Kremlin oligarch who had enjoyed "a close relationship for decades" with Mr Putin.
Western countries push to isolate Russia
The response follows Western countries imposing unprecedented sanctions on Russia's corporate and financial system since it invaded Ukraine on 24 February.
The Morrison government says it has sanctioned more than 400 Russian individuals and entities, including corrupt oligarchs, MPs, and military commanders for their involvement in helping facilitate Mr Putin’s invasion against Ukraine.
It has also targeted the Central Bank of Russia, and Russia's national sovereign wealth fund, Russian Direct Investment, along with allies.
Other actions taken by Western countries include the removal of selected Russian banks from the SWIFT global payments system.
A number of Western companies, including McDonald's, Coca Cola and Starbucks, have also suspended trading in Russia.
The US is also banning all Russian oil and gas imports and Britain will phase out Russian oil by the end of 2022.
Dr Stoltz said the collective effort of Western countries was successfully isolating the Russian economy.
“We’ve kind of moved beyond these precision strikes against wealthy individuals and we’re taking a holistic targeting of the Russian economy,” he said.
“It’s about making ordinary Russians realise that their government is being blockaded by the rest of the world. We know that pain is happening right now.”
But Mr Muraviev said the ultimate impact of this sweeping response remained to play out.
"No nation has experienced the economic shock the way how the Russians are now feeling under this massive avalanche of sanctions," he said.
“We will have to see what will come out from that.”
