Will the Tories hand back Russian cash as Putin threatens war?
Regardless of what unfolds in the coming days and weeks, the fact that Vladimir Putin is once again menacing and stalking the world stage requires those of us committed to peace to act. In the UK, that means getting our own house in order.
Let there be no doubt: when it comes to tackling Russian aggression, the Labour party supports the UK government and our allies. Those who equivocate between the actions of Russia and Nato are misguided or worse. The unified approach of recent weeks has surprised the Kremlin precisely because it is so used to encountering division. Those divisions have contributed to decades of failure in dealing with Russia.
The Putin playbook is well known. He favours chaos over order, the fog of war over clear strategy. He takes a nihilistic, zero-sum approach to foreign policy. Illicit money and influence are used as a judo move that turns the openness and freedom of western democracies into weaknesses. Over almost 12 years of Tory government, the tendrils of the Kremlin have been allowed to wrap around the UK, turning London into the “money-laundering capital of the world”. A cottage industry has been created that directly and indirectly does the bidding of those linked to Putin. Last week, it was revealed that £1.5bn of UK property had been snapped up by Russians accused of corruption or linked to the Kremlin. They are not here for the weather: they see us as a soft touch, somewhere they can hide cash with few questions asked.
The prime minister’s recent tough talk couldn’t even be described as closing the stable door after the horse has bolted: it’s more like musing on what a good idea having a door would be. In 2018, the Commons foreign affairs committee said that “reacting in an ad hoc way to the
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