London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Aug 30, 2025

Why does the UK seem so slow at acting against Putin’s oligarchs?

Why does the UK seem so slow at acting against Putin’s oligarchs?

Analysis: from legal threats to a lack of resources, there are many reasons why Britain may be dragging its heels

The world has watched as France and Germany have seized superyachts to prevent their oligarch owners evading sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. Yet – to the bemusement of allies – in Britain it is still legal for many Kremlin-linked businessmen to sell their assets.

MPs from the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, to Conservative party backbenchers lined up on Wednesday to ask Boris Johnson why the government has not yet personally targeted many of the individuals who have grown rich under Vladimir Putin.

In private, EU governments are also trying to work out why the UK has been slow to act, and Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s first vice-president on Thursday hinted at the frustrations in public.

Johnson has promised to publish a list of people in Britain deemed to have links with Putin’s regime, while the cabinet minister Michael Gove is reported to be in favour of seizing homes and offering them as housing to Ukrainian refugees.

On Thursday evening the UK Foreign Office announced sanctions against Alisher Usmanov, the billionaire formerly linked to British football clubs, and Igor Shuvalov, a former deputy prime minister of Russia. Both have been linked to expensive properties in London.

Yet signs of any further concrete action against the oligarchs are limited. What are the reasons why the government may be dragging its feet?

Political neglect


There is a persistent sense among anti-corruption experts that exposing dirty money flowing through the UK – and particularly through London – is not a high political priority.

“Even without the invasion, with Russia I think this government has been caught on the back foot,” said Tom Keatinge, a financial crime expert at the thinktank Rusi. “I just think it is something the prime minister has not ever thought he needed to focus on.”

Whitehall sources stress there is now significant political will to change the UK’s status as a haven for oligarchs – including internal pressure from senior cabinet ministers.

But the Conservative party will also be mindful of how it has benefited from Russian largesse – most recently £80,000 from Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of a former Putin minister. Chernukhin has denounced the invasion. The Conservative party chair, Ben Elliot, runs a luxury concierge service whose marketing has offered to help Russians buy property in London and find elite private schools.

Legal threats from oligarchs


Sanctions are a powerful weapon, but oligarchs can challenge them with expensive lawyers – at least, from those solicitors who can stomach reputational damage.

Meanwhile, billionaire oligarchs have a huge incentive to spend whatever necessary to have sanctions removed. “There’s not equality of arms,” said Bill Browder, a US financier turned anti-corruption campaigner. He describes UK law enforcement as risk averse.

“In my experience over the last 10 years I’ve seen that the UK law enforcement capabilities when it comes to economic crime are at the bottom of the league table in this part of the world,” he said.

The government has brought in “unexplained wealth orders” to force suspects to explain their wealth or else face confiscation, but has so far only used them against four people. One attempt ended in failure, with a court in 2020 rejecting an order against relatives of a former president of Kazakhstan.

Lack of skills and resources


Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said on Monday that the UK has a “hitlist” of oligarchs, and that the Foreign Office had hired extra lawyers and tripled the number of people in the sanctions department.

But there is widespread internal frustration that preparatory work for legal cases against a number of individuals has only just now begun, after months of warning about a Russian invasion.

Labour’s foreign affairs spokesperson, David Lammy, said the small number of sanctioned oligarchs was “totally unacceptable” a week after Russia’s invasion started. “Ministers had months to prepare for this eventuality, with the full support of parliament,” he said.

UK caution


The Russian invasion has been the first new test of the sanctions regime since the UK left the EU. There is some evidence that the evidentiary standard the UK was applying was slightly higher than the EU.

Government sources have blamed additional barriers brought in after a proposed amendment to sanctions law in 2018, by crossbench peer Lord Pannick, which they claim added an additional evidence burden.

It meant ministers had to apply a proportionality test and give individuals reasons why they had had sanctions placed on them. But Pannick told the Guardian there was little material difference with the EU regime, a view shared by other legal experts.

The UK seems to be taking a more cautious legal approach regardless, which one Whitehall source put down to the newness of the system.

Jasper Helder, a sanctions expert at Akin Gump, a US law firm, said: “The FCDO, they want to be careful that they have the appropriate evidence to support the correct application of designation authority.”

Open for business


Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who has campaigned for tougher corruption laws, linked the slow action on sanctioning oligarchs to the UK allowing itself to “become a jurisdiction of choice for kleptocrats”.

Hodge said she believed that the government had been swayed against tougher action by the City, anxious to avoid extra costs and, in some cases, lost business. Parts of the financial services sector are “not just colluding with but facilitating dirty money”, Hodge said.

The broader services sector has also come under scrutiny. Henry Pryor, a buying agent and property expert, said: “We have historically made it too easy for people to own property without stepping into the sunshine.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
A new faith called Robotheism claims artificial intelligence isn’t just smart but actually God itself
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner Purchases Third Property Amid Housing Tax Reforms Debate
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Italian Facebook Group Sharing Intimate Images Without Consent Shut Down Amid Police Investigation
Dutch Foreign Minister Resigns Amid Deadlock Over Israel Sanctions
Trump and Allies Send Messages of Support to Ukraine on Independence Day Amid Ongoing Conflict
China Reels as Telegram Chat Group Shares Hidden-Camera Footage of Women and Children
Sam Nicoresti becomes first transgender comedian to win Edinburgh Comedy Award
Builders uncover historic human remains in Lancashire house renovation
Australia Wants to Tax Your Empty Bedrooms
MotoGP Cameraman Narrowly Avoids Pedro Acosta Crash at Hungarian Grand Prix
FBI Investigates John Bolton Over Classified Documents in High-Profile Raids
Report reveals OpenAI pitched national ChatGPT Plus subscription to UK ministers
×