After Salisbury, the Tories said we would get tough on rich Russians. But billionaires are still coming and sanctions are nowhere to be seen
Britain, we’re told, has a new policy on dirty Russian money. We are finally pulling the red carpet from under the feet of the rich Russians who have turned London into a private members’ club.
This new “hostile environment” was trailed in February after the security minister, Ben Wallace, watched McMafia– “We know what they are up to and we are not going to let it happen anymore,” he told the Times– in an onslaught of media announcements that has since become more intense. After the novichok attack in Salisbury, a headline in the Sun told us wealthy Russians were unwelcome. These are, an article on Bloomberg announced “the last days of Londongrad”.
The only person who’s been noticeably affected is Roman Abramovich, whose visa renewal took so long he got an Israeli passport
Related: Britain lets Putin move his dark money with impunity. That has to stop | Oliver Bullough
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