UK vs. Oligarchs: ‘The Gloves Are Now Off’

“Some of the smaller fry are almost more important because they won’t have millions here, but have something and it will irritate them,” said Chris Bryant, a lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party, who has called on the government to do more to root out corrupt money.

Another tactic for the richest of the oligarchs is to make generous donations to the arts, education or charity — a form of “reputation laundering” that makes them harder to punish. A handful of oligarchs have become pillars of British society.

In a report in December on corrupt money in Britain, Chatham House, a research institute on foreign affairs, cited the Russian financier Dmitry Leus, who it said was “a supporter of St George’s Hospital, runs a children’s charity, supports a sports club in London, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.”

“He also attempted to become a patron of the Prince of Wales’s foundation, making a £535,000 donation,” the report said. “However, the foundation later returned the donation, having learnt that Leus had spent time in a Russian prison.”

Leonard Blavatnik, a Ukraine-born British-American billionaire, donated almost $100 million to Oxford University to build a school of government, and his name is on a wing of the Tate Modern Museum in London. One of the wealthiest people in Britain, Blavatnik has kept his distance from Putin, though he made his fortune in the post-Soviet breakup, investing with a fellow oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg.

“You have to be careful about where to draw the line,” Joe Powell, a founder of Kensington Against Dirty Money, said of going after individuals. “This is not meant to be an anti-Russia or anti-Russian campaign. This is first about transparency.”

For the activists, it is easier to shine a spotlight on Mr. Aliyev, the Azerbaijani leader, whose government engages in repression and human-rights abuses, according to the State Department. The problem with the influx of money like Aliyev’s, Powell said, is that it distorts the property market, making affordable housing scarce while leaving thousands of high-end residences empty.

The townhouse in Kensington is one of a portfolio of London properties, worth tens of millions of dollars each, owned by offshore companies with ties to Mr. Aliyev or his relatives. The ownership details came to light in the Pandora Papers, a trove of leaked financial documents that were published, starting last October, by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

But none of this has so far prompted Britain to act against Aliyev. His country is not involved in the war in Ukraine, even if he and Mr. Putin are friendly. Azerbaijan also maintains cordial relations with Britain, which is a major investor in its energy industry. Last year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain toasted 30 years of diplomatic ties, saying, “Cooperation is currently at an all-time high.”

Though Johnson has pressed hard for sanctions against Russia, including removing its banks from the SWIFT financial transfer network, he has been slower to target London’s rich Russians. That, critics say, reflects the fact that his Conservative Party has been the beneficiary of their largess.

Since Johnson became prime minister in 2019, the party or its constituency associations have received 1.93 million pounds (about $2.5 million) from donors who are either Russian or who made money from Russia, according to calculations by the opposition Labour Party, based on disclosures to the Electoral Commission. The Tories typically raise more than 20 million pounds ($26 million) a year in private donations.

Among the Russian Tory donors are the industrialist Alexander Temerko and the financier Lubov Chernukhin, with whom Mr. Johnson played tennis in exchange for a check before he became prime minister.

“These are not just happy-go-lucky Russians who came to the U.K. after starting some kind of a burger joint in Moscow,” said Thomas Mayne, a visiting fellow at Chatham House and an author of its report. “These are people with very clear links to the Kremlin or to people who have had roles in the past that are likely to raise security issues.”

Such concerns came up in the case of Evgeny Lebedev, a 44-year-old Russian-British press baron and friend of Mr. Johnson’s, whom he gave a seat in the House of Lords. Mr. Lebedev’s father, Alexander Lebedev, was an official in the K.G.B. who became an oligarch. Security agencies raised questions about his father’s background, according to a person familiar with the matter, but Mr. Johnson pressed ahead.

“For many years, we turned a blind eye to this and all of a sudden, we are worried about Russian money,” Mr. Mayne said. “Well, it’s a little bit too late.”

Saskia Solomon contributed reporting.