Top Tory: No hiding place for Putin’s thieves and fraudsters
‘Let’s hit them where it hurts – in the wallet’
THERESA MAY was last night urged by one of her most powerful MPs to be uncompromising in the sanctions she unveils against Moscow.
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the hugely influential Commons’ Foreign Affairs Select Committee, called on the Prime Minister to ‘hit Putin where it hurts – in the wallet’.
Government sources said that the Prime Minister – who has already announced heightened counter-espionage measures, tighter checks on oligarchs wanting to live in the UK, new powers to target the assets of Russians linked to corruption and a Ministerial and Royal boycott of the World Cup – was preparing to go even further down the road of asset seizures and visa checks on corrupt oligarchs.
Mr Tugendhat , the Tonbridge and Malling MP, said Mrs May should prioritise action against cronies of President Putin, who he accused of siphoning billions out of Russia and into the UK.
He also said Kremlin-linked businessmen should be barred from making political donations, while pressure should be put on British companies who profit from dubious Russian business practices.
Mr Tugendhat said: ‘Those who are still connected to the regime should be spurned. They’re not seeking to promote democracy but corrupt it. They have no right to use proxies to funnel money to political parties.
‘If you are taking payment in suitcases of cash then you should look very hard at whether or not you are enabling money laundering and, in a Russian context, very often murder too.’
Critically, he called for action to stop Putin allies from using the British property market to shelter their corrupt funds.
In particular, he called for increased use of unexplained wealth orders, which require a person suspected of involvement in crime to prove that the money used to purchase an asset was lawfully acquired. The orders have only been used twice, both times on non-Russians.
‘British property is being purchased by people seeking to hide their money,’ Mr Tugendhat said. ‘We must use unexplained wealth orders and targeted sanctions to hit those who support Putin where it hurts – in the wallet.
‘When Putin and his cronies have used British markets or services to facilitate theft, we must call it out. London cannot be home to the proceeds of theft or the profit of murders.
‘Those who are offering financial and legal services to Russian oligarchs need to think very hard about the moral stance they are taking’.
Mr Tugendhat said Britain should work with allies including the EU and Nato to trace the ‘billions of pounds stolen from the Russian people’ by Putin and his supporters and ‘hidden around the world’.
‘It needs to be found and exposed,’ he said. ‘We need to work so that our co-ordinated response becomes a brake on the worst of the Putin abuses. The poison is spreading too far.’
It was vital not to underestimate the threat posed by the Moscow regime, he added.
‘We should be under no illusion how vicious was the attack on the British people. No one, not even Al Qaeda, has used nerve agents in Europe since the Second World War. Russia is a rogue regime, ruled by a demagogue who thinks nothing of murdering opponents at home or abroad.
‘Putin is leading a hostile regime and those who enable it – whether in politics, the City or elsewhere – are siding with those who threaten the British people and all those who value freedom.’