British response to war compromised by Russian money

At the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine, as missiles flew and tanks advanced on major cities, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was repeatedly asked why sanctions were not being immediately imposed on Russian banks, businesses and individuals in the UK, as they were in other European countries.

Clearly struggling for an answer acceptable not only in Ukraine but at home and across Europe too, he gave rambling replies about how it was important not to make this a war against Russian people, but against the Putin regime. Those Russian people he mentioned might have been the millions constantly fed the state propaganda line that Ukraine is the aggressor in this conflict, and that Russia is not fighting a war at all but on a “special military operation” to defeat Naziism.

Or he might have been trying to stir up Russian national conscience and encourage those close enough to the top to unite and topple Putin before the war unleashed its full horrors. Or he might, of course, have meant precisely what he said. But with Johnson there is frequently a different meaning, or at least a significant subtext to the words he utters. And the suspicion remains that the Prime Minister was prevaricating to give his close Russian friends time to arrange their affairs and shift what assets they could before full sanctions could no longer be delayed.

Many Russians – more specifically billionaire, oligarch Russians – have been big buddies to Johnson and the Conservative Party. The Prime Minister maintains a close friendship with Evening Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev, the son of the Russian oligarch and former KBG agent, Alexander Lebedev. The bond between the two appears so strong that Johnson overruled advice from the House of Lords Appointments Commission to hand his friend a peerage. He also ignored warnings from Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee in their “Russia Report,” that highlighted Moscow’s attempts to meddle with the political system here. 

The report also stated that the UK has been welcoming Russian money for many years, with few, if any, questions asked about the provenance of the cash. The Prime Minister refused to allow publication of the report before the 2019 General Election amid claims of “embarrassing” links the committee had discovered between UK based, Russian Conservative Party donors and the Kremlin.

For years London has been termed “Londongrad” by financial observers, but many now reckon that the rouble already no longer rules. High profile billionaire Russians with contacts to Putin, like Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, are cutting their losses and running while Labour leader Keir Starmer has demanded Boris Johnson return £2.3m of Russian linked cash donated to the Tories.

Labour too, albeit to a far lesser degree, has potentially embarrassing but less direct connections to possible Russian cash. The party received donations from hedge fund manager Martin Taylor, co-manager of the Nevsky fund, which operated until 2015 and had investments in the Russian economy, including stocks in the state-owned bank, Sberbank.