Covid and corruption contradict Putin’s pan-Slavic loyalties
SQUATTING
I am in London talking a lot about my new book (did I mention I’ve got a new book out?), and took the opportunity to nip down to Belgrave Square to see the very genteel stand-off between four anarchists, who had occupied a house belonging to family members of oligarch Oleg Deripaska, and the forces of the Metropolitan Police.
It was raining. A small but vocal group of supporters was making a little bit of noise, while journalists huddled under umbrellas, and a team of specialists tried to get near the anarchists who were hanging out on the balcony over the front door and occasionally shifting further away from the people trying to get them.
There wasn’t much going on, to be honest, but it did strike me as indicative of London’s entire approach to oligarchs’ money: when it arrives, no one cares; when anyone threatens it, the entire police force turns up. As one lawyer who’s been involved in cases against the oligarchs told me last week: “until we can persuade judges that a theft committed overseas is as important as the right to property here, we’ll never get anywhere”.
Deripaska has of course now been sanctioned in the U.K., as have many other oligarchs, but we are a long way from challenging their ownership of their mansions.