Echoing the Treasury Department’s decision to prohibit trading in Venezuelan “hunger bonds” in US markets, UK Prime Minister Theresa May is mulling whether to throw her support behind a measure that would ban the sale of Russian sovereign debt in City of London financial markets.

And just like with Venezuela, such a short-sighted prohibition wouldn’t make it any more difficult for Russia to sell its sovereign debt. Rather, Russia would be forced to turn to China to compensate for the shortfall, according to the Guardian.

May’s decision to look into the ban comes at the behest of Foreign Affairs Select Committee Chairman Tom Tugendhat, who has repeatedly urged May to do more to punish Russia for allegedly masterminding the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with novichok – a Soviet-era nerve agent. Most recently, the tensions between the UK and Russia have precipitated a round of diplomatic expulsions, with more than two dozen countries expelling at least some Russia diplomats.

EU and US sanctions against Russia didn’t prohibit the bond sales because of a loophole that effectively set up Russian bank VTB as the main liaison between the Russian state and western financial markets. Now, Tugendhat and several of his allies in Parliament are calling for the loophole to be closed – on both sides of the Atlantic. Tugendhat has spoken about the loophole at least three times in the past week.

The denunciations come as Tugendhat’s committee is beginning an investigation into how the UK enables allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin to store and spend their money in the UK.

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