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Eight unnamed Russian oligarchs who entered Britain on Tier 1 investor visas have been placed on a UK sanctions list amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. Dubbed the ‘golden visa’ route because it allowed wealthy individuals to buy their way into Britain through investment, the Tier 1 investor visa route was closed earlier this year.
Amid claims of corruption and money laundering, the Tier 1 investor visa route had come under heavy scrutiny in recent years. It was the route under which Russian owner of Chelsea Football Club, Roman Abramovich – who himself has been sanctioned, came to Britain.
UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said that the eight unnamed oligarchs sanctioned for having ties to Russian President, Vladimir Putin, ‘have the blood of the Ukrainian people on their hands’.
Home Office minister
In response to a recent parliamentary question, Lady Williams of Trafford revealed that on 18 March, eight of the oligarchs subjected to UK sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine had been identified as ‘holding or had held a Tier 1 investor visa or Tier 1 investor migrant dependent visa.
The Home Office has so far not provided any comment on who the unnamed individuals are.
On 10 March, the UK government said it had placed 18 Russian businesspeople on its sanction list with an estimated combined worth of £30 billion, since the invasion began. On the list is Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, and Alisher Usmanov, a steel and mining magnate who has been described as Putin’s favourite oligarch and who has ties to Everton Football Club.
Andrey Guryev Junior, whose family reportedly owns Witanhurst – a mansion in Highgate North London that is reportedly London’s second largest home after Buckingham Palace – is also on the list of sanctions.
Rolled out the red carpet
While Boris Johnson accused sanctioned Russian oligarchs of having Ukrainian blood on their hands, Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson, Layla Moran, took a swipe at the Tories, saying: “For too long the government has rolled out the red carpet for Putin’s cronies. These people should never have been able to buy their way into the UK with ill-gotten wealth.”
“We now need to know how many others who were given golden visas owe their wealth to Putin’s regime, and why the government hasn’t sanctioned them too. Ministers must stop dragging their feet and finally publish the review into these visas,” Ms Moran added.
Launched in 2008, the so-called golden visa scheme was scrapped in February 2022. The UK immigration route allowed people with at least £2 million in investment funds and a British bank account to apply for UK residency rights and bring dependents into the country.
Depending on the level of investment, wealthy foreign nationals could secure UK residency much faster. A £2 million investment meant an individual could apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years. A £10 million investment reduced the application time to two years.
Following its launch in 2008, 2,581 UK investor visas have since been issued to Russian nationals.
Blind faith period
During what has been described as a ‘blind faith period’ between 2008 and 2015, 97% of investors were subjected to very loose checks on the legitimacy of their investment funds, sparking concerns over ‘undesirable people’ slipping into Britain among critics of the Tier 1 investor visa scheme.
According to anti-corruption watchdog, Spotlight on Corruption, 6,312 golden visas – half of the total number granted – had been reviewed for ‘possible national security risks’.
Executive director of Spotlight on Corruption, Dr Susan Hawley, said: “This illustrates once again just how risky the golden visa regime was to the UK’s national security, and is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg. The government must publish its review of golden visas issued between 2008 and 2015, when minimal checks on applicants’ source of wealth were made, urgently.”
“We also need to know how many Tier 1 visas issued to Russian nationals since 2008 have been found to pose a national security risk, and what steps the government is taking to revoke visas where appropriate,” Dr Hawley added.
Salisbury poisonings
In the aftermath of the Salisbury poisonings, which targeted Sergei – a former Russian officer - and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, the UK government launched an investigation into the investors who had been awarded Tier 1 investor visas between 2008 and 2015. The outcome of the investigation has still not been published.
Meanwhile, new investors continued to benefit from the system. As of September 2021, 798 investor visas were awarded, 82 of which were issued to Russians, according to the latest Home Office data. This represented the highest 12-month total since 2018.
Prior to its closure, the scheme had remained open despite the poisoning of the Skripal’s on British soil, and despite parliament’s joint intelligence and security committee saying in 2020 that it was ‘letting in Russian oligarchs with open arms’.
At the time, the committee said: “It offered ideal mechanisms by which illicit finance could be recycled through what has been referred to as the London ‘laundromat’. Russian influence in the UK is ‘the new normal’, and there are a lot of Russians with very close links to Putin who are well integrated into the UK business and social scene, and accepted because of their wealth.”
“This level of integration – in ‘Londongrad’ in particular – means that any measures now being taken by the government are not preventative but rather constitute damage limitation,” the committee added.
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