As the world sanctions, Boris Johnson and the Tories are protecting THEIR RUSSIAN DONORS
Bosom buddies: Boris Johnson with Russian industrialist Alexander Temerko. Before the Ukraine crisis, Johnson said he didn’t think there was any reason to investigate Russian influence in UK politics.
After Boris Johnson claimed the UK was the first country in the world to impose financial sanctions on Russia, to force Vladimir Putin to end his war on Ukraine, it turns out that all he did was give Russians in the UK notice to move their money somewhere else.
£100 billion per year of corrupt Russian money washes through the UK (according to Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, in Parliament as I type this) – and this has been known for nearly a decade – as Private Eye points out, and then goes on to mistakenly state that it takes a war to move the government to action.
9 years after the Eye exposed rampant Russian money-laundering in London and 6 years since we revealed the scale of anonymous offshore ownership of UK property, it takes a war to finally make the government take action. Full story in the brand new Private Eye, out today.
— Private Eye Magazine (@PrivateEyeNews) March 2, 2022
I say mistakenly because despite all Johnson’s bluster, it seems no action has yet been taken to seize Russian assets or sanction their banks:
UK govt has not seized any oligarch assets and is now allowing sanctioned Russian banks 30 days to put their affairs in order. WTF is going on?
— Simon 🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇦 #FBPE (@Simon1JB) March 2, 2022
These are ill-gotten gains (to a huge extent) – have no doubt about that:
The Russian oligarchs currently hiding their great wealth in London didn’t get rich through hard work. They made their money swindling state assets from the Russian people…and they didn’t sneak into Britain. They were invited in by a Tory Party grateful for donations.
— Ragged Trousered Philanderer (@RaggedTP) February 23, 2022
For an example of the UK’s treatment of Russian oligarchs, let’s look at Roman Abramovich
So, do I have this straight? The best known oligarch in Britain & billionaire owner of Chelsea FC who tried to sue investigative journalist @CatherineBelton for writing about his close relationship with Vladimir Putin..he *still* hasn’t been sanctioned?
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) March 2, 2022
Could Johnson be an even bigger hypocrite? Yes. The man who suppressed the Russia report, is rolling in Russian cash & has failed to sanction Abramovich is using Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to put out jingoistic films portraying himself as hero of the hourpic.twitter.com/ns6nUsODPD
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) March 2, 2022
Abramovich should clearly have his assets seized before he can sell them off.
Why is our government deliberately giving him as much time as he needs to sell them and move his money?
— Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) March 2, 2022
And here’s what’s happening to the Russian banks with money in the UK:
“Britain has been accused of opening a loophole in sanctions designed to hobble the Putin regime by granting one of Moscow’s biggest banks an “absurd” month-long exemption from the enforcement of an assets freeze.”
🤦🏻♂️ https://t.co/ccymjFO65k
— Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) March 1, 2022
Oh FFS! UK Gvmnt sanction Russian VTB Bank. Make lots of publicity about how hard the UK Gvmnt is being on freezing Russian assets in the UK.
Quietly informs the banks customers that they have 30 days to move all their assets and close accounts before sanctions take effect.
— Jason J Hunter (Not a noble Lord) (@JJHTweets) March 1, 2022
So: no money has been frozen; no money has been seized.
Why is the UK gov giving oligarchs 30 days before sanctions come into effect?
Can anyone explain the wisdom behind this?
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) March 1, 2022
Apart from the obvious can anyone explain why the British government is giving Russian gangsters 30 days grace to rearrange their assets in London, presumably avoiding the worst of sanctions?
— Jacques🇫🇷🇪🇺💙 (@JacquesStraub) March 2, 2022
Apparently Abramovich has put this house and an Apartment on the market! Surely they should be seized?
— Baroness Patricia of Plague Island (@Patrici89225734) March 1, 2022
The value of Russian assets in the UK is huge:
£27bn of UK property is owned by Russians. At least £1,500 million of it has direct links to the Kremlin.
The government could clamp down on that if they really cared about Ukraine.
They don’t.
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) February 25, 2022
So why the delay in action, if the UK could inflict huge damage by imposing sanctions?
There is a possible explanation – as illustrated by Clive Lewis, below:
Labour’s Clive Lewis has just brandished a copy of a Christmas card featuring a former pro-Putin Russian politician with Boris Johnson. The caption reads “we open closed doors”…#Londongrad pic.twitter.com/TLBeK6Aizi
— Tom Ambrose (@tomambrose89) February 28, 2022
Russian money, it seems, has been opening the doors of the UK’s Conservative MPs, as demonstrated by the list below:
https://twitter.com/Alien_Brit/status/1498262034663759872
“Zen & Write” makes a good point. Politicians who have taken money from people from – possibly representing – a country hostile to the UK should lose the right to sit in a UK government. Shouldn’t they?
Andy McDonald makes a hugely important point:
Tory MPs who've received massive amounts of dirty money from oligarchs close to Putin need to explain what was expected of them in return for these 'donations'.
It's astonishing they haven't been told by the @Conservatives to give that money back. pic.twitter.com/GfBGqFG4bH
— Andy McDonald MP (@AndyMcDonaldMP) March 1, 2022
Exactly. What did these Russians want from our MPs – the policymakers of our government – in return for their filthy lucre?
We’re talking about huge amounts of money here. The list of donations and recipients goes on and on:
https://twitter.com/Claudiachan00/status/1498050559806484489
Joy Morrissey MP @joymorrissey, one of Johnson's newly appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary received £5000 from Aquind Limited whose directors include oligarch Alexander Temerko. Should she give the money back? pic.twitter.com/FdUjI3sGg5
— Brian Tibbels 🇪🇺 🕷️ 🇺🇦🚜 #FBPA #GTTO 🎖️ (@Brian_Tibbels) February 28, 2022
This is Brandon Lewis. He took £60K in Russian donations. pic.twitter.com/D7CJnCTBdF
— @GrahamTrimmer (@GrahamTrimmer1) February 28, 2022
https://twitter.com/Claudiachan00/status/1498017163512328201
Fox was on his hind legs during Prime Minister’s Questions today (March 2):
#LiamFox calling for anyone with links to the #Putin regime to dissociate themselves from it. Is he going to give back the £10,000 he had from a Russian donor? #PMQs #PoliticsLive
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) March 2, 2022
A bit hypocritical?
https://twitter.com/Claudiachan00/status/1498733090025484289
This is Lubov Chernukhin.
She is the wife of Vladimir Chernukhin, a former deputy finance minister for Vladimir Putin
She has given the tories £908,000 in 35 separate donations
She owns numerous properties in London all are registered in the name of companies based in tax havens— sue#NHSLove💙💙💙#FBNHS #GeneralElectionNow (@SueSuezep) February 22, 2022
Boris Johnson put the son of a KGB agent in the House of Lords.
His word and his sanctions mean nothing.
— Supertanskiii (@supertanskiii) February 24, 2022
(That’s Lord Evgeny Lebedev, of course.)
So this is what we’re seeing:
Liz Truss says, ‘We are not going to allow Putin to win’ and ‘nothing would be off the table’, while her party pockets Putin’s thousands under the table.
— Helen the Zen 🏴 💙 🍉 (@helenmallam) February 23, 2022
And this:
Johnson: full sanctions on Russia and Russians will take months
US and EU: we have just applied full sanctions on Russia and Russians
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) February 24, 2022
And this:
Boris Johnson has just kicked down the road any moves against Russian Oligarchs and McMafia in the UK.
This is just another list of more pretend sanctions, especially the refusal to close Oligarch bank accounts in UK banks.
Boris protecting Putin’s pals.
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) February 24, 2022
“Boris protecting Putin’s pals.” That is the size of it.
And at a time like this, when the UK’s government is screaming at us that it is acting against the aggression of Vladimir Putin and his people, while in fact helping them beat the sanctions imposed on them by moving their money elsewhere, we need to remember that it could have been hugely different:
Every bad thing happening in UK now is happening because they elected a mob of Tory thieves and liars and con artists instead of a decent socialist.
It didn't have to be this way, but our media made sure it was.
An invading army could not have done more damage than our press.— simon maginn (@simonmaginn) March 1, 2022
And that means you can’t trust a single thing said about this by the mainstream media. How does it feel to have been fed lies for years on end?
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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It was so obvious while watching PMQs Boris was umming & ahhring that he had no frigging answers
cos his oligarchs who donated to his party was so embarrassing shit I even felt sorry for him for about a millisecond
I suspect Abramovich’s Russian/Israeli heritage is what’s doubly protecting his assets.
Even the Tory Propoganda spouting BBC cannot hide the massive void between Bojob’s big announcements and proclamations versus reality.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/60591547