London has long been an El Dorado for Russian oligarchs. This is no longer the case. The symbol is Roman Abramovich of course. The owner of the prestigious Chelsea football club, then reigning European champion, was forced to sell it last March after the outbreak of war in Ukraine. All of his property on British soil has been frozen.
In total, more than 1,000 personalities close to the Kremlin and more than 120 companies are now on the British government’s blacklist. A situation that was unthinkable a few months ago, even if the link between the United Kingdom and Russia was significantly strained four years ago with the attempted poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal, on the English soil.
Despite this, business continued. Those that London has allowed for thirty years, and that journalist Oliver Bullough has studied very closely: “If you look at the abilities of the Russian oligarchs, they are very good at certain things: killing people, robbing businesses, rigging elections… None of this allowed them to enter a globalized economy. They needed advice and that’s what London gave them. It made them so powerful. It all happened here.”
If his latest book is called Butler of the world, it’s because it describes a UK that is always quick to facilitate investment, no matter where the money comes from. Financial mechanisms in square to accommodate Putin’s friends still exist. It is those who benefit from it who have changed.
Trevor Abrahamson says the same thing. For 50 years, this London real estate agent has been negotiating properties that are sometimes worth tens of millions. He has lost his Russian clientele but that does not worry him: “In the 1970s, the Arabs made their fortunes in oil and then the Nigerians and the Indians, and they invested everything in London. In the 1980s, it was the turn of the Americans. In the 1990s, after the fall from the Berlin wall, the Russians bought here and more recently the Chinese oligarchs. Each time, the lucky bees fly to the London honeypot.”
Londongrad, so it’s over. But London always reserves a warm welcome to the big fortunes, even if the origin of the funds is not always very clear.