Kremlin-linked oligarchs in London

So in summary the Prime Minister ignored advice from MI5 and MI6 not to give a peerage to the son of a former KGB officer, before intervening to hand him government contracts.

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Robert Peston
@Peston
One of Buffett’s most famous aphorisms is “only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked”. This applies in spades to the many members of the political and financial establishment who took money and favours from Russian oligarchs and kleptocrats…

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Jo Maugham
@JolyonMaugham
·
1h
We've done a pretty thorough sweep of Tory Russian donors declared with the Electoral Commission and, we believe, not even one is on the Government's sanctions list.

Wouldn't want to bite the hand that feeds, I guess.

“Nigel Farage should be invited to reveal, maybe by a public enquiry, all sources of Russian funding he received as leader of the Brexit & UKIP parties and the “Leave” campaign in 2016. Vitally important for Ukraine sanctions & criminal law purposes”

Whitewavemark2

Cold War Steve

On a lighter note - Whitewavemark2's pic tickled me up, especially Truss in her Russian hat!

Daily Mail report

A Russian billionaire

Founded a pro-Brexit Think Tank

That helped Johnson & Gove lobby for Brexit

Who turned out to be a suspected Russian spy

(Suspected by Tory MPs no less)

With money laundering links

And now we don’t hear a peep

Cold War Steve

LauraNorderr

OMG Maizie you did say just most of them. I shall now retire with my tail firmly between my legs.

Oh no, don't do that.

I was very on edge yesterday because the Ukraine situation was looking so worrying with such an imminent threat of catastrophic escalation.

OMG Maizie you did say just most of them. I shall now retire with my tail firmly between my legs.

Oligarchs have been able to buy visas and citizenship in the U.K. This practice must stop.

Thanks for the apology, LauraNorder. I do appreciate it.

But, without checking back I don't think that I said ‘just all of them’. I think it was more like 'just most of them'.

Without going into the history of every Russian billionaire in the UK it would be rash to say that they all made their money by plundering Russia; there may be some who came here as poor immigrants and have built their fortunes by luck and hard work...

But, it is frequently said that the only reason many of the oligarchs have been allowed by Putin to take their money out of Russia is because they are still useful to him... As we see, money opens so many doors and buys influence...

Just to remind you all of what the Russia Report, the publication of which was delayed by Johnson for a year, said about the Russian Oligarchs
some extracts:

Start

"The extent to which Russian expatriates are using their access to UK businesses and politicians to exert influence in the UK is *: it is widely recognised that Russian intelligence and business are completely intertwined."
P23 (16) - "The Government must *, take the necessary measures to counter the threat and challenge the impunity of Putin-linked elites. Legislation is a key step,"
P23 (16) - "Several members of the Russian elite who are closely linked to Putin are identified as being involved with charitable and/or political organisations in the UK, having donated to political parties,..."
P23 (16) - "with a public profile which positions them to assist Russian influence operations." It is notable that a number of Members of the House of Lords have business interests linked to Russia, or work directly for major Russian companies linked to the Russian state"
P23 (16) - "the reality is that it is highly probable that the oligarchy will have the financial means to ensure their lawyers – a key group of professional enablers – find ways to circumvent this legislation"
P26 (19) - "...Russia currently poses a significant threat to the UK on a number of fronts – from espionage to interference in democratic processes, and to serious crime. The question is how that has happened – and what the Intelligence Community is now doing to tackle it."

End

Link to the twitter threads (Aug 2020) these extracts are copied from:

twitter.com/VoxLibero/status/1300001611952066560

This is a link to complete report if anyone would like to refresh their memories

drive.google.com/file/d/193YkiRu8e38hHRGQoaMVBUhCbOfRIJqR/view

"Legislation is a key step" says the report. Legislation which the Johnson government failed to initiate and now has, belatedly, expecting it to be operational in 18 month's time. When the oligarchs have moved everything out of the UK.

Maizie nothing annoys me more on gransnet that a poster not reading the post properly and now I have annoyed myself beyond embarrassment. I apologise.
GG said not all rich Russians are crooks and you replied ‘just all of them’.
I would still say not all rich Russians are crooks and stand by my assertion that we should be careful not to stir hatred of all rich Russians, we must hope that any with a sense of decency will speak out as has Alex Konanykhin.
The comedian who appeared on Question Time last evening was very well informed and imo spoke well.

LauraNorderr

LauraNorderr

GG says not all Russians are bad. Maizie answers ‘just most of them’.
I would like to see your evidence Maizie. What a horrible thing to say about an oppressed and frightened people.
Some Russians surrounding Putin are bad. Most are ordinary folk like us but living in fear.
Some wealthy Russians are good guys too. The Independent reported yesterday that Russian businessman Alex Konanykhin had offered $1million reward on Putins head to anyone who arrested him.

GG says not all Russians are crooks.
Maizie says ‘just most of them’.
Where is your evidence of that Maizie.
Most Russians are just like us, want a peaceful life, want to be warm and fed, want to be safe and happy.
The Russian people are not the enemy.
Direct your anger at Putin and the oligarchs who support him. They are the crooks.
I am glad to see the west rightly supporting the innocent people of Ukraine but hope we don’t stir up more hatred and racism against another race with such nasty and biased comments.

You still need to read what GG13 actually said and stop responding to something you've made up to suit your own agenda.

Times report.

Boris Johnson has cut the amount of money the government will spend this year investigating dirty cash in "Londongrad" .

Sanctions

24 by UK ?? with 30 days notice

148 by US ?? - immediate
446 by EU ?? - immediate
351 by Switzerland?? - immediate

Whitewavemark2

Of course not all Russians are crooks, but if this war continues and spreads to the Balkans, then we have to be realistic.

During the last war, ask yourself what we did to apparent innocent Germans.

We can’t be naive, not all Russians are evil, but when you are at war, all Russians are potential 5th columnists.

Are people living here who might be thought to be Russian going to have to carry documentary evidence of being Ukrainian, Polish, Slavakian or whatever to show anybody who decides to challenge them? Goodness, when somebody, can't remember who, said we'd need to carefully screen all Ukrainian refugees because Russian agents might sneak in under disguise, they were roundly rebuffed. I don't like the idea that we could get a repeat of the paediatrician/paedophile fiasco from years ago.

Sorry didn’t mean to quote my own post. Just copying to show no real difference between ‘bad’ and ‘crook’.

LauraNorderr

GG says not all Russians are bad. Maizie answers ‘just most of them’.
I would like to see your evidence Maizie. What a horrible thing to say about an oppressed and frightened people.
Some Russians surrounding Putin are bad. Most are ordinary folk like us but living in fear.
Some wealthy Russians are good guys too. The Independent reported yesterday that Russian businessman Alex Konanykhin had offered $1million reward on Putins head to anyone who arrested him.

GG says not all Russians are crooks.
Maizie says ‘just most of them’.
Where is your evidence of that Maizie.
Most Russians are just like us, want a peaceful life, want to be warm and fed, want to be safe and happy.
The Russian people are not the enemy.
Direct your anger at Putin and the oligarchs who support him. They are the crooks.
I am glad to see the west rightly supporting the innocent people of Ukraine but hope we don’t stir up more hatred and racism against another race with such nasty and biased comments.

Jon Trickett MP
@jon_trickett
·
Mar 2
A Russian Tory donor previously married to Putin’s Minister gave the Tories £80,000 just a few weeks ago.

Putin’s gangster capitalism is thriving in London.

Whitewavemark2

?

And his sister came too ....

The Germans weren’t deported. They all boated over to the Isle of Man and spent the duration in B&B.

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2

Yes I reiterate what volver has said.

If it spreads to the balkans we have to reassess our attitude to Russians living in the U.K. particularly if we take into our decision the fact of Putin’s propaganda warfare since 2014.

Our good friends have a son who’s fiancé is Russian, she stayed in the U.K. after University. She is no more a threat to U.K. society than anyone else.

Our old neighbour is Russian (well, she's not old, she's a youngish woman, a widowed mum). She still lives not far away now and has lived here for years. I do hope she's not deported or ostracised.

She is no more a threat to U.K. society than anyone else
I doubt our old neighbour is either; she has a young son who was born here too.

When I lived in Bulgaria we had several Russians neighbours.
When they were good they were very good but when they were bad they were horrible. Usually Vodka and Champagne induced tantrums ?

So I suppose that the oligarchs. will head for the resort islands and eventually drink them dry