The Guardian view on the Ukraine crisis: calling time on Londongrad
Describing the manner in which Britain has been cravenly complicit in the laundering of Russian oligarchs’ wealth, one expert witness told the foreign affairs select committee in 2018: “We have had a welcome mat out to money – it has been financial investment as opposed to industrial investment over the past 20 years. We have had a regulatory stance that welcomed that money.”
After accumulating a huge body of similar evidence, the MPs produced a report entitled “Moscow’s Gold: Russian Corruption in the UK”. Published in the wake of the novichok poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, it starkly concluded that President Vladimir Putin and his allies hid and laundered corrupt assets in London, drawing upon them when required. Nothing of any substance was done. A subsequent “Russia Report” of 2020, published by the intelligence and security committee, judged that oligarchs had become a corrupting force in British public life, using their money to make connections and exert undue influence. Again, the government response has been to delay and prevaricate.
As Vladimir Putin’s troops menace eastern Ukraine, and the world contemplates the possibility of a catastrophic war on European soil, the foot-dragging is inexcusable. Last week’s decision to shut down the so-called golden visa route for super-rich investors was welcome. But the exposure of the beneficiaries of dirty money already invested in Britain, and sweeping sanctions, should be a central part of any strategy to make Mr Putin realise the price of his aggression. “Londongrad” – a damning nickname which has been around for well over a decade – must finally be dismantled as a hub of Russian soft power and a safe conduit for Kremlin cronyism.
The foot-dragging tells its
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