London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

The problem with the UK’s Russian clamp down

The problem with the UK’s Russian clamp down

I’m no apologist for oligarchs, whether they be from Russia or anywhere else. I have been writing for years about how dirty money was flooding into London’s property market, helping to price out ordinary people who just want a home.
The government should have taken action decades ago to prevent kleptocrats from laundering their money through London property and their reputations through our libel courts.

These matters could have been addressed quite easily by prohibiting property from being held in the name of overseas private companies and by reforming libel laws to stop the wealthy from threatening journalists and anyone else with eyewatering legal bills.

Yet I feel uneasy at the speed at which things seem to have turned – to the point at which government ministers seem to feel entitled to seize property and other assets without much in the way of evidence that they are ill-gotten gains. Yesterday, housing secretary Michael Gove told a committee of MPs that the government was thinking of speeding up legislation to make it easier to seize assets under so-called 'unexplained wealth orders' – which force people to provide an explanation for how they came by their money, or lose it.

It might sound reasonable enough in the context of Putin’s cronies with property in London, but it runs somewhat counter to the principle of being innocent until proven guilty. Could I prove that every penny in my bank account, or every pound with which I bought my house two decades ago, was honestly earned? I am not sure the required documentation exists. It is all too easy to see how heavy-handed legislation passed hurriedly to deal with Putin’s cronies could end up being used against ordinary taxpayers.

What must it feel like to be an honest Russian business owner in Britain at the moment? Much as some might like to think of Russia as being made up entirely of oligarchs and peasants, such people do exist. They will have been chilled to hear Sir Roger Gale, Conservative MP for North Thanet, propose that every single Russian citizen living in Britain have their visa cancelled and be ejected from the country. Among the people Sir Roger would like to deport back to Russia are dissidents who came to Britain to escape Putin’s dictatorship, who already suffer the possibility of being served a dose of Novichok. They are people we need on our side; not trying to treat them as if they were the Russian leader’s henchmen. And to think that only a few weeks ago Sir Roger was trying to pose as the Conservative party’s moral conscience over partygate.

Go after Putin’s cronies by all means, and disarm their wealthy London lawyers (how about large fines for lawyers who use threatening letters, just as we prosecute Twitter users who made threats?). But please don’t let us descend even slightly towards the level of Putin by undermining the rule of law and having a state which helps itself to fistfuls of individuals’ money at a whim. And let’s stamp out anti-Russian prejudice before it has a chance to take hold. Ordinary Russians, just like Ukrainians, are Putin’s victims too.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×