He was inflexible in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling Vladimir Putin a “dictator”. But British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is also being criticized for his inaction on the flow of dubious Russian money that has been pouring into London for years, suspected of sometimes being used for the purpose of political influence. Russian billionaires have large assets and properties in upscale London, sometimes dubbed “Londongrad”, and NGOs and British officials have sounded the alarm. Some like Roman Abramovich own a Premier League football club (Chelsea), and their children attend elite schools.
On Wednesday, as he announced increased British military aid to Kiev and the preparation of new economic sanctions against Moscow, Boris Johnson signaled another postponement of the long-awaited economic crimes bill, which would increase the transparency on the shareholding of British companies held in particular by Russian oligarchs. “We need to stop the Russian money coming from corruption in London and any other financial capital,” he told parliament, urging New York, Paris and other financial centers to join in the effort to penalties. “No country is doing more than the UK to tackle this problem,” he said.
Boris, acclaimed tennis partner
The United Kingdom, however, had a lighter hand than the European Union by imposing on Tuesday a first set of sanctions against Russian interests in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. Five banks and three Russian oligarchs were thus in the British sights, while the Europeans sanctioned 23 leading figures, including the Minister of Defense, Banks and 351 deputies.
According to several studies, the “Londongrad” phenomenon was facilitated by an abundant service industry including large banks, accounting firms, lawyers, real estate agents and public relations advisers. And Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, which came to power in 2019, has benefited from donations from wealthy donors, including some from Russia.
“It may be that all these people want to do is play tennis with Boris or have dinner with him,” comments Thomas Mayne, an expert on corruption in Russia and Central Asia at the Chatham House think tank, about the benefits for which some of these donors put their hands in the wallet. “But the question that needs to be asked is where do their true allegiances lie, and where do their money come from,” he adds.
“Golden visas” that fuel the Conservative Party
It was only last week that London ended its ‘golden visas’ for wealthy investors on security grounds, as relations between London and Moscow hit a multi-year low following the poisoning on British soil of former Russian spies.
Beneficiaries of this accommodating policy, a former member of Putin’s government, Vladimir Chernukhin, and his wife Lyubov, have since become British citizens. The latter has paid more than 2 million pounds (2.4 million euros) to the conservatives since 2012, according to the newspaper Sunday Timesto gain privileged access to Boris Johnson and other high-profile government figures.
“How can the allies trust the Prime Minister to wash this dirty Russian money from the UK when he is not even cleaning his own political party? asked Ian Blackford, leader of the Scottish nationalist party SNP in Westminster. The Tories say these donations meet legal requirements, are transparently reported and only come from UK citizens or UK-based companies.