Gleaming skyline of Londongrad is polished by lacquer of Russian roubles
The world was rightly nervous when the egomaniacal Donald Trump held the keys to the nuclear arsenal. His buddy Vladimir Putin? Not so much. Everyone knew the former KGB man was a calculating control freak and simply not so stupid as to risk a nuclear war.
The Russian President, once so buttoned up, appears to have popped, however. He sits alone, with even the closest aides keeping their distance, and, as pathological narcissists go, he is more dangerous than The Donald, who at least had some, a few, sane people around the White House to keep him in check.
Putin’s assault on Ukraine was long planned but what seems new is the emergence of Vlad the Unhinged. In a dawn TV broadcast, Putin warned interference would trigger “consequences you have never seen in history.” If that’s not a threat to press the button, what is? The world is right to be afraid.
His apparent personal deterioration might not have been foreseen but the nature of the state Putin was building was understood long ago. Forbes magazine reports Putin has strengthened the rouble, meaning his vast energy resources bring even more benefit, much of it going to fund arms. And there’s plenty more in the financial tank. Russia’s public debt is 18% of GDP compared to 100% in the US.
Moscow has invested in a military build-up not unlike Nazi Germany before the Second World War. Putin’s world view, in some respects, is the same as that of the Third Reich. Where Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia on the spurious grounds of protecting Germans there, Putin uses the same arguments about Ukraine. Really, it is about empire.
Following the money leads to other uncomfortable truths. The recent sanctions against Russian banks and a clutch of billionaires barely scratch the surface of the financial power of Putin’s cohorts. Londongrad’s gleaming skyline is polished by Russian lacquer. Transparency International, the anticorruption charity, says at least £1.5 billion worth of UK property is owned by Russian criminals or people linked to Putin’s regime, sometimes both.
The respected Chatham House organisation says financial deregulation and globalisation – embraced by successive UK Governments – allowed the crooks to hide their wealth in plain sight. The Labour Party used Electoral Commission information to calculate the Russian kleptocracy has donated £1.93m to the Tories since 2019.
Labour, too, has some dirty laundry and it was former chancellor and prime minister Gordon Brown who introduced the “Tier 1 Investment Scheme” that allowed these people to buy their way into the British establishment. For £2m a former Communist Party boss who had grabbed a factory or two in the chaos after the Soviet collapse could get temporary UK residence and apply for permanent residence after five years. For £10m it was just two years.
Russian money doesn’t just buy penthouses and politicians but has been accepted by universities, charities and public companies. Some of the UK’S best-known brands are Russian owned.
The West holds back from hitting the kleptocrats where it hurts – in offshore bank accounts, shell companies and the Knightsbridge flats whose owners are unknown – and could do so much more. The size of the problem in the UK means tough measures here could prevent further tragedy. We have an unstable tyrant who makes threats of atomic war, surely effective action will now be taken? With an establishment bought and sold for Russian gold, that looks like a forlorn hope.