A long delayed publication of a report detailing Russian influence in British politics has said the U.K. “now faces a threat from Russia within its own borders.”
Today’s threat comes from a collection of wealthy Russians living in the UK “with very close ties to Putin who are well incorporated into the UK’s economic and social scene and accepted their wealth,” according to the report.
But the entrenchment goes far beyond the ancient oligarchs, to which London has long been accustomed. Now there is a “catalyst industry,” says the so-called “Russia Report.” This includes “lawyers, accountants, genuine real estate agents and public relations professionals” who have played a role, “knowingly or not, in extending Russia’s strength related to promoting the harmful interests of the Russian state.”
As coin laundering and “reputation laundering” are now common, it is much more difficult to differentiate between wise currencies and bad currencies, William ‘Bill’ Browder, co-founder of Hermitage Capital, told the British Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security: “The interests of the Russian state, in collaboration with and during the corrupt interests themselves, have created a “buffer” of Western agents.
“As a result, British actors will have to confront the interests of masked Russian criminals as state interests and masked Russian state interests through their Western agents,” said Browder, who has also campaigned for governments around the world to adopt the Magnitsky Act, which punishes and prohibits protecting and corrupting other Americans and perpetrators of huguy rights violations.
Part of Browder’s testimobig apple before the Committee showed Russian bills to members of the House of Lords, at the time a house of Parliament.
Aleven, although he revealed names to the Committee, none of them were published in his report. However, he notes that “members of the House of Lords have applicable advertising interests with Russia or paintings directly for giant Russian corporations connected to the Russian state.”
These do not appear as names that delight in the russia report for security reasons. On the main things of Russian expats, for example, the report says: “The extent to which Russian expats use their access to British businesses and politicians to exert influence in the UK is.”
The report whose planned best friend was released in the spring of last year, but was delayed several times until its last release on Tuesday, July 21. This has caused a complaint that the report is in an outdated position.
For example, the report includes recommendations for rewriting the UK’s Tier 1 investor visa, which he said has a “more physically powerful approach” to examining applicants who pay 2 million pounds ($1.5 million) on exposure to a residence. However, the UK Home Office has followed stricter rules when the report on Russia was published in March 2019.
But even with reforms like these, the Committee acknowledges some Russian threats from within the U.K. cannot be untangled. Now the priority must be to “mitigate the risk and ensure that, where hostile activity is uncovered, the tools exist to tackle it at source.”
There will need to be more measures to position other Russian Americans who might not paint to publicize the state’s interests, or the station may oppose them. The chemical attack on former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury was a key occasion that led to the launch of the report on Russia. He now warns that other criticism of Putin is in jeopardy in the UK.
This is because President Vladimir Putin sees the UK “as a key diplomatic adversary,” he says.
As seen as an adversary and Russian wealth is now so ingrained in the political and advertising fields, the Committee concludes that Russia’s strength may be there to remain:
“In short, Russia’s strength in the UK is ‘the hot norm’, and there are masses of Russians with very close ties to Putin who are well incorporated into the UK’s economic and social scene and accepted their wealth.”
I am writing the plight of Europe’s wealth in the midst of the political crisis and crisis on the continent. Multimillion-dollar canopy and where their coins end: charities and
I am writing about the plight of Europe’s wealth in the midst of the political crisis and the crisis on the continent. I keep an eye on the billionaires and where their coins end: the charitable and philanthropic works of the rich; The music and the arts they support; clubs and pastimes that accumulate. I have more than ten years of pleasure in advising governments, companies and charities on the subject, and I write for other newspapers and magazines. You can follow me on Twitter @ollieawilliams or email me at ow [at] oliverwilliams.me