The tight web of lawyers and PR firms who oil the wheels for billionaires
In November 2017, a bank with close links to the Kremlin was revealed to have funded a £140m investment in Twitter.
The share acquisition made by DST Global, founded by the Russian-born billionaire Yuri Milner, was financed by the Kremlin-controlled VTB Bank, now under UK sanctions, leaked documents revealed.
Milner said at the time it was a “fairytale” to suggest the investment bought in May 2011 may have been used to influence social media on Russia’s behalf. He said DST Global was a “passive investor”.
While the Twitter shares are now sold, corporate filings reveal the “care of” address for the DST Global entities holding the shares was a four-storey townhouse in Mayfair, London. This stucco-fronted property is the base of Alistair Tulloch, one of the best-connected lawyers among Russia’s super-rich.
Over the years, those who have tried to unpick the financial paper trails of Russian investments, oligarchs and officials have found it is Tulloch’s name – or the address of his legal firm, Tulloch & Co – that frequently pops up on the paperwork.
An investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in October last year, based on the leaked offshore documents known as the Pandora Papers, reported that Tulloch’s law firm helped manage offshore companies for former Russian deputy finance minister Andrey Vavilov and Vitaly Zhogin, a Russian banker.
Property records and company filings involving Tulloch’s firm also lead to other former Kremlin politicians and Russian business figures. These include Igor Shuvalov, Russia’s former deputy prime minister, who was last week sanctioned by the UK government after pressure from Labour leader Keir Starmer.
Shuvalov owns two flats in Whitehall, fitted with chandeliers
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