WAR ON UKRAINE: THE THE PUTIN CRONIES WHO SUPPORT DESPOT INNER CIRCLE
BY GERALDINE MCKELVIE Investigations Editor, DAN HALL and LAURA CONNOR SOME of Russia’s richest oligarchs had assets frozen in a £15billion British sanctions move – but it does not go far enough.
Now experts want the Government to hit their family members too.
They say a loophole in our laws means oligarchs could transfer assets to their children to potentially dodge the sanctions.
Dr Susan Hawley, executive director of the charity Spotlight on Corruption, said: “There is a major gap in the sanctions regime. It must be addressed quickly.”
Boris Johnson has vowed there will be no “safe haven” here for wealthy Russians who have supported Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
TOUGHER
But while US authorities have sanctioned some close family of the despot’s allies, the UK has been lenient.
Dr Elisabeth Schimpfössl, a lecturer in Sociology and Policy at Birmingham’s Aston University and author of Rich Russians: From Oligarchs to Bourgeoisie, said: “UK sanctions definitely need to be tougher.
“If they don’t cover the children of Putin’s allies, it’s pointless.
“They could just sign money over to their children. Perhaps they have already done that.
“It’s difficult to trace a lot of Russian money because it is often held in the names of relatives – and some of the money will be parked offshore.”
Here we take a look at the wealth and lifestyles of some of some of Putin’s cronies and their families geraldine.mckelvie@mirror.co.uk
media is awash with snaps from luxury holidays in European resorts. At 18, she was listed as the majority shareholder in a firm based in
Mayfair called
Regional
Property
Developments Ltd, before it was dissolved in 2019. Her brother Evegeny, 28, owned govern– ment. Yet until last year, she was a managing partner of a venture capital fund whose parent company Sistema in 2019 invested in UK artificial intelligence companies – FiveAI, SenSat and KisanHub.
Before joining Sistema, Ksenia worked in a senior the largest stake until 2017. Their property magnate mum Olga has also escaped sanctions. In 2016, she flew to the UK on a private jet to exhibit corgis at a Windsor dog show– because her pets were said to find first class “too uncomfortable”. role with Gazprombank, which makes millions selling energy to the West. Ksenia also escaped EU and US sanctions last month.
She is a fan of lavish European holidays. Her fitness blogger boyfriend Alexey Stolyarov whisked her off to Italy last year after she had a baby daughter.