(London) As the West threatens Moscow with unprecedented sanctions if it intervenes in Ukraine, British NGOs and officials denounce the role of Russian money from corruption infiltrating the financial and real estate markets of the United Kingdom .
Posted at 2:45 p.m.
“While Moscow flexes its muscles in Ukraine, Russian money is still poisoning our shores,” said Tom Tugendhat, Conservative MP and chairman of Britain’s Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee in a column published Friday by CityAm, one of the daily favorites of the powerful British financial industry.
It’s not just tanks that pose a threat, but cash.
Tom Tugendhat, Chairman of the UK Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs
The Tory MP said funds placed in “accounts and properties in London are used to undermine the security of the UK”, citing in particular the death of ex-Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with polonium in 2006 in London after having denounced the corruption and the alleged links of the Russian services with organized crime.
PHOTO ARCHIVE BLOOMBERG NEWS
In a letter dictated on his deathbed, former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko accused President Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder. The Kremlin, which refuses to extradite the two main suspects, has always denied this accusation.
After years of extreme tensions with Russia, London has taken a very offensive position in the Ukraine crisis, accusing Moscow of wanting to take Kiev and place a pro-Russian government there, and sending anti-tank missiles for the Ukrainian army.
“Londongrad”
But the British authorities are also accused of turning a blind eye to the origin of some of the Russian money flowing into London, sometimes nicknamed “Londongrad”, suspected of sometimes coming from corruption, criminal activities, and be used for influence purposes.
PHOTO BRITISH PARLIAMENT, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The UK has a particular responsibility in the current crisis because of London’s role in global money laundering, says Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
Russian oligarchs have large assets and properties in upmarket areas of London.
On the BBC, Tom Tugendhat judged that the United Kingdom had a particular responsibility in the current crisis because of London’s role in global money laundering.
Much of the money that unfortunately causes instability, here in Bosnia and Ukraine and of course in Russia, flows through our markets in London.”
Tom Tugendhat, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, in an interview with the BBC
According to American diplomats quoted on Friday by the British daily The Times, London’s inaction in the face of the flow of Russian money into the British economy will minimize the effectiveness of potential financial sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin, mentioned by Washington.
The British “washing machine”
The NGO Transparency International estimates at 1.5 billion pounds (2.6 billion Canadian dollars) the value of real estate held in the United Kingdom by Russians accused of corruption or linked to the Kremlin.
Of this amount, £1bn is held by companies based in British Crown tax havens, such as the British Virgin Islands and the Isle of Man, according to the organization.
It’s no secret that Britain is a washing machine for dirty money and reputation for Russians and nationals of other countries. This not only impacts citizens of countries with corrupt regimes, but poses security threats here in the UK.
Duncan Hames, policy director at Transparency International UK.
“The government should push forward long-awaited reforms to stop criminals and the corrupt from storing their illicit gains in high-end properties here” in the UK, he added in a statement received by AFP. Friday, calling in particular on London to freeze assets.
The United Kingdom is currently imposing financial sanctions for corruption on 14 Russian personalities.
In 2018, a report by the British Foreign Affairs Commission entitled “Moscow’s gold”, published in the midst of the Skripal affair (a former double agent poisoned in England, by Moscow according to London), concluded that the best way to countering Russian aggression would be to prevent the Kremlin from laundering illegal money into the UK and through its overseas territories.
In this report, anti-corruption activist Roman Borisovich described the Russian oligarchs as belonging to the “same class” of people beholden to the Kremlin.
“Even though they may seem very different — one owns a soccer team, another gave money to an Oxford school, another was imprisoned in communist jails, another was a civil servant… — […] they made money through a relationship with the Russian government. […] This bond forces them to do all sorts of things for Putin.”
The Foreign Affairs Committee intends to quickly launch an investigation into the regulation of money flows in the world, one of its spokespersons told AFP on Friday.