For years, the U.K. has welcomed oligarchs with few questions asked about their fortunes. Now, British intelligence is warning that Russian money is propping up Putin's regime — and that some of it is helping fund the war in Ukraine.
As Russian troops lay waste to Ukrainian cities, the West has tried to punish President Vladimir Putin by choking off the finances of his closest allies, mega-rich oligarchs who have lived abroad in luxury for decades. And while Europe and the U.S. have seized mansions and superyachts, frozen bank accounts and banned travel, the U.K. is lagging behind.
Bill Whitaker: You don't become an oligarch, you don't become a wealthy businessman in Russia without dancing to the tune of Putin? Dominic Grieve: I think the evidence is pretty clear that in some cases it was. It's a question of whether the influence is being used to try to soften up the responses of Western democracies towards the actions of the Russian state.
"I think because they feel a noose around their neck tied by Putin," he told us, interpreted from Russian."I can only explain it this way." This is Belgravia. These neighborhoods around Eaton Square are some of the most expensive on Earth. Once the exclusive preserve of dukes and barons, now… Oliver Bullough: There was a general feeling that if the money was coming here and paying taxes that was building schools and building roads and building hospitals, then we didn't care where it came from. But it seems extraordinary now, looking back, that the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 did not occasion a national conversation at least about what we were doing.
The government of Boris Johnson canceled the visa program when Russia invaded Ukraine. it banned travel and froze the assets of 24 oligarchs. It will soon launch an anti-corruption police unit. Both political parties — Labor and Conservative — have courted Russian money but Conservatives have gotten the lion's share — at least $4 million in political donations since 2012, including almost $1 million from Alexander Temerko, a former Russian arms tycoon, now a British citizen.
Despite warnings from British security services that the son of an ex-KGB agent posed a security risk, Lord Lebedev of Hampton and Siberia put on his ermine robes. Now from his seat, he can watch other British lords race to resign from boards of Russian companies.
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