Rich Russians are a headache for Johnson
Keir Starmer has called for an investigation into claims that Boris Johnson intervened to help Evgeny Lebedev, a Russian-born media mogul, get a peerage after MI5 and MI6 raised security concerns. Johnson denied the accusations and warned against allowing a “witch hunt against every Russian in the UK”. What he has not, however, denied is that he met Lebedev privately before he was granted a peerage, says David Wilcock in the Daily Mail, and his “cavorting” with Lebedev during trips to the socialite’s Italian villa might create another headache for the Tory party, says Kevin Maguire in the New Statesman.
Johnson’s insistence that Russian oligarchs will “have nowhere to hide” is also meeting some scepticism about how much will change, says The Washington Post. The UK’s “toothless” unexplained wealth orders to force individuals to reveal sources of their wealth have been used just four times, never on a Russian. Instead, there is “an entire ecosystem of investment brokers, property agents, tax lawyers and ‘reputation managers’” who have enriched themselves off Russian money. Oligarchs also have a “grace period” of six months to sell up (it was originally 18 and Labour is calling for this to be cut to one), points out Wilcock. In response to criticism over the number of oligarchs targeted, Europe minister James Cleverly pointed out that over 200 individuals and over £250bn worth of Russian activity have already been “curtailed”.
There is also an “exodus” of top executives from firms with strong ties to Russia, says the FT. Recent exits include Greg Barker, chairman of EN+, Evraz’s James Rutherford and six board members of Polymetal. The Big Four accounting firms have severed ties, Accenture is closing its business in Russia and elite law firms such as Linklaters are starting to withdraw from Russia, too. The “London laundromat” is “spinning”.