CAP: The US should not fully trust Britain because of its ties with Russian oligarchs
Photo: Toby Melville / Reuters
The Center for American Progress (CAP), a public policy and advocacy research organization, has prepared a report for US President Joe Biden. In the text, which is published on the organization’s website, the head of state is advised not to trust the UK and the European Union as military allies, since they are closely connected with Russian oligarchs.
According to the author of the study, Russian oligarchs invested their money in Western assets and banks, sent their children to Western schools and universities, and bought real estate in the West. According to CAP estimates, the volume of “Russian money” in the West is about a trillion dollars.
“Oligarchs give money to major Western political parties, universities and charitable organizations. They employ leading law firms, accountants, financial managers and real estate brokers. And they bought influential newspapers and mass media, sports teams and companies — and they became supporters of large cultural institutions and analytical centers,” the article says. Aggressive sanctions and visa bans will be needed to eradicate such influence, the author of the text believes.
He also emphasizes that banks in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the Baltic States have been exposed as money laundering tools of Russian oligarchs. In particular, as indicated in the report, London has become a major center for Russian money, because of this in the English-language press it has received the nickname “Londongrad”.
In order to reduce the influence of Russian oligarchs in the West, the author of the study advises to impose tough sanctions against them, arrest their assets, initiate legal proceedings, and prohibit them from obtaining visas. In addition, the United States and Britain were recommended to create a working group to combat “Russian kleptocrats”, as well as to crack down on their “Western accomplices”: companies, accountants, investment firms that profit from working with oligarchs.
Finally, the West is advised to ban the export of technology to Russia and to conduct a continuous campaign of economic sanctions against Moscow aimed at the degradation of the Russian economy in the long term.
Such actions are mentioned in the context of the response to Russia’s “invasion” of Ukraine, which Moscow has been accused of preparing for several months. The West has announced the most extensive sanctions against Moscow, including disconnecting the country from the SWIFT system and other strict economic bans. They promised to apply restrictions in case of Russian aggression in the east of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia denies these accusations and considers unacceptable even the idea of a military conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
