James
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<b>Boris Johnson has launched a crackdown on oligarchs and companies linked to Vladimir Putin, but critics question its effectiveness.</b>
5 Belgrave Square, a stucco-fronted mansion complete with pillared portico, is one of London’s most exclusive addresses, overlooking leafy gardens and nestled between grand embassies and other private residences.
Once home to Sir Henry “Chips” Channon, a US-born Conservative MP whose diaries published during the 1960s were a source of scandal about British high society, in 2003 the Belgravia property, marketed for £25mn, became a symbol of a new era in UK prime real estate ownership.
It was bought for members of the family of Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch, an early sign of a flood of Russian wealth into “Londongrad”, as the UK capital soon became labelled.
Another prominent oligarch who invested in London the same year was Roman Abramovich, who bought Chelsea football club. This week, as pressure ratcheted up on Russian tycoons following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich put Chelsea up for sale.
Over the past two decades, London became one of the preferred investment locations — if not the favoured destination — for Russian oligarchs, as well a key financial centre for Russian companies, all encouraged by British governments of different political stripes.
But critics have dubbed it the “London laundromat”: an apparatus that allowed billions of pounds — some of it obtained through illegal or questionable means — to be siphoned out of the Russian economy and into trophy assets in the UK.
Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Boris Johnson declared he wants to put that process into reverse, and impose punitive sanctions on individuals and companies with links to the Kremlin as well as crack down on money laundering.
But despite the bold rhetoric, it is not clear the Johnson government has either the political will or the tools to completely strip illicit money from the UK financial system.
— — —
Full article at: https://amp.ft.com/content/cfb74ef3-13d2-492a-b8da-c70b6340ccdd
5 Belgrave Square, a stucco-fronted mansion complete with pillared portico, is one of London’s most exclusive addresses, overlooking leafy gardens and nestled between grand embassies and other private residences.
Once home to Sir Henry “Chips” Channon, a US-born Conservative MP whose diaries published during the 1960s were a source of scandal about British high society, in 2003 the Belgravia property, marketed for £25mn, became a symbol of a new era in UK prime real estate ownership.
It was bought for members of the family of Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch, an early sign of a flood of Russian wealth into “Londongrad”, as the UK capital soon became labelled.
Another prominent oligarch who invested in London the same year was Roman Abramovich, who bought Chelsea football club. This week, as pressure ratcheted up on Russian tycoons following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich put Chelsea up for sale.
Over the past two decades, London became one of the preferred investment locations — if not the favoured destination — for Russian oligarchs, as well a key financial centre for Russian companies, all encouraged by British governments of different political stripes.
But critics have dubbed it the “London laundromat”: an apparatus that allowed billions of pounds — some of it obtained through illegal or questionable means — to be siphoned out of the Russian economy and into trophy assets in the UK.
Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Boris Johnson declared he wants to put that process into reverse, and impose punitive sanctions on individuals and companies with links to the Kremlin as well as crack down on money laundering.
But despite the bold rhetoric, it is not clear the Johnson government has either the political will or the tools to completely strip illicit money from the UK financial system.
— — —
Full article at: https://amp.ft.com/content/cfb74ef3-13d2-492a-b8da-c70b6340ccdd
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