Johnson steps up Ukraine support but is accused of slowness on Russian dirty money
Boris Johnson has pledged to send more defensive equipment and $100m to Ukraine to hold off Russian troops and mitigate financial pressures facing the country, but was accused of moving too slowly and timidly to clamp down on oligarchs’ dirty money in the UK.
Emergency legislation is due to be rushed through the House of Commons on Monday, intended to create a register of overseas ownership of UK land and property, reform unexplained wealth orders and make it easier to prosecute those involved in breaking sanctions.
The economic crime bill will be supported by opposition parties, but ministers were warned it would still give those suspected of money laundering a “get out of London free card” and contained loopholes that could let people disguise or liquidate their assets before the new powers come into effect.
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said he was frustrated ministers were “going slowly” and that there were “echoes of Afghanistan”, claiming the government “really only begins to get its act together and respond in the heat of the situation rather than preparing for it beforehand”.
Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, said on Sunday it could take months or even years for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to be defeated in his ambition to conquer Ukraine.
Raab said anyone who thought the crisis would be resolved in days was “deluding themselves” and that western nations would need to “show some strategic stamina”, even though Moscow’s military campaign had “stuttered”.
Johnson will host meetings in No 10 with Nato leaders – Canada’s Justin Trudeau and the Netherlands’ Mark Rutte – on Monday to keep up the international pressure on Russia to end its war on the edge of eastern Europe.
The prime minister said that
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