The street Kensington Gardens is also known as “Billionaires Row” because many foreign super-rich live in the villas.
(Photo: action press)
London London is so popular with wealthy Russians that the British capital is nicknamed Moscow-on-the-Thames. For years, oligarchs have used the UK’s lax money laundering controls to turn their sometimes illegally acquired assets into real estate and other investments. They are rewarded for this with a “golden visa”, which gives them the right to reside in Great Britain.
That should change now. In view of the Russian troop deployment on the border with Ukraine, the British government now wants to take action. Home Secretary Priti Patel said on Thursday that she had halted the investor visa program “with immediate effect.” The move is directed against “corrupt elites who endanger our national security and throw dirty money around in our cities”.
Since 2008 foreigners who invest at least two million pounds in Great Britain have received a residence permit. After five years, this could be converted into a permanent residence permit. Anyone who brought ten million pounds into the country could even apply for a tenure after just two years.
According to the BBC, more than 2,500 Russian citizens have received such “golden visas”. The program has been criticized for years. Several parliamentary investigative reports concluded that it facilitated money laundering.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
The government had tightened the award criteria a few times – most recently after the poison gas attack in Salisbury, England, in 2018, when Russian secret agents tried to poison the double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia who lived there. Since then, foreign investors have had to have a UK bank account and prove where their wealth came from.
New regulation of the golden visa is still pending
But even after that, hundreds of visas were still issued. A number of industries in London benefit from doing business with the wealthy foreigners, including bankers, fund managers, brokers, lawyers, PR firms and private schools. That’s why it hasn’t been looked at too closely to this day.
>> Read here: Russians between anger and fear: “Feeling that the disappointment will be great if there is no war”
It remains to be seen how the new regulations for investor visas will look in detail. According to Patel, the issuing of visas should in future depend on whether an investor creates jobs and brings real economic benefits. The purchase of a property or a share portfolio in the millions should no longer be enough. In addition to Russians, wealthy Chinese will be particularly affected.
The government’s sudden rush is due to the growing pressure in the Ukraine crisis. It is true that Prime Minister Boris Johnson, together with the US government, has hitherto struck the sharpest note against the Kremlin. But as long as the accusation was that London was welcoming the oligarchs with open arms, the outrage didn’t seem credible.
Now the relationship with Russia should be fundamentally reconsidered. Everything that has been normal in British-Russian relations for the past 30 years is now being put to the test, Defense Secretary James Heappey told the BBC.
The announcement on investor visas was welcomed in Parliament. “Great news,” tweeted Foreign Affairs Committee chair Tom Tugendhat. The conservative was one of the harshest critics of the visa program.
More: London threatens Russian oligarchs – but the city lives on them