Target family, friends and lovers of Putin cronies with sanctions, urge campaigners
Call to blacklist daughter of Russian minister’s mistress who bought £4.4m apartment aged 21
THE DAUGHTER of Sergei Lavrov’s mistress should be among the family members of Vladimir Putin’s cronies hit with sanctions, MPS and campaigners said last night.
Ministers were urged to target the loved ones of those at the top of the Kremlin as they prepared for a next round of sanctions as early as next week.
The Russian foreign minister’s alleged “second family” including Svetlana Polyakova, his mistress, and her 26-year-old daughter, Polina Kovaleva, who bought a £4.4million Kensington apartment in cash at the age of 21, were identified as among those who should be looked at.
Around 140 Russian oligarchs and Putin “enablers” have now been named in the House of Commons, but assetfreezes have only been placed on 23 Russian oligarchs, in addition to the president and Mr Lavrov, since the invasion began. As they added Roman Abramovich to the sanction list yesterday, government sources claimed that their strategy was part of a ratcheting up of action against Mr Putin.
A Foreign Office source said: “Liz [Truss] and the Government’s strategy is to debilitate the Russian economy – taking it out at the knees.
It is also designed to send “a signal that no one and nothing is off the table in terms of sanctions now and in the future”, the Whitehall insider said.
But MPS questioned why the Government’s list is dwarfed by the hundreds of individuals and entities sanctioned by the EU and the US. Ministers have claimed that their actions have been hampered by the evidence threshold required under the law, but emergency legislation due to pass next week is expected to soften this.
Layla Moran MP, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for foreign affairs, said: “The Government is still way behind the EU and the US. The legislation hasn’t passed yet, so if they can act against Abramovich now, why not the others?”
Last month, Ms Moran called for action against 35 named “key enablers” of Mr Putin in the House of Commons, including Mr Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska, who was also added to the UK sanction list yesterday. But many others on that list have been sanctioned in the EU or US but not in the UK.
This includes Viktor Zolotov, who leads Russia’s National Guard and whose family is one of the richest in Russia, Anton Vaino, Mr Putin’s chief of staff and Mikhail Mishustin, the prime minister.
Ms Moran said officials should also look at “the family and friends” of Mr Putin’s cronies as “one of the ways that they get around sanctions is to transfer funds and assets to family members”.
Maria Pevchikh, head of the investigations at Alexei Navalny’s Anti-corruption Foundation, named members of Mr Lavrov’s family including Ms Polyakova and Ms Kovaleva as those who should have assets frozen. Her calls were backed by Chris Bryant, the Labour MP. Ms Polyakova, an actress and restaurateur, is said to have been in a relationship with Mr Lavrov since the early 2000s and documents show she has been abroad with the him more than 60 times. Ms Kovaleva could not be reached for comment last night.
The Government does not comment in advance on the target of sanctions, partly for legal reasons, and partly to avoid tipping off oligarchs and giving them time to move their assets.