GUARDIAN PODCAST: How to end Britain’s love affair with Russian money / Butler to the World: How Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals

 

GUARDIAN PODCAST

How to end Britain’s love affair with Russian money

 

Oliver Bullough has traced how the British financial system has sheltered ill-gotten Russian wealth over many decades. Can the system be cleaned up?

Presented by Hannah Moore with Oliver Bullough; produced by Elizabeth Cassin and Axel Kacoutié; executive producers Mythili Rao and Phil Maynard

 

Wed 2 Mar 2022 03.00 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2022/mar/02/how-to-end-britains-love-affair-with-russian-money

 

In response to Vladimir Putin’s escalating assault on Ukraine, the UK has added more than 100 individuals and entities to its sanctions list. Boris Johnson says these measures are designed to “squeeze Russia from the global economy”.

 

But will they be effective? Oliver Bullough, who has been writing about the proliferation of Russian wealth in the UK for many years, tells Hannah Moore that the British banking system has long welcomed Russian money. His new book is Butler to the World: how Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals. He explains how Britain became such an attractive place for Russian oligarchs to spend and invest their money, and why repeated attempts to reform the system have fallen short.

 

Butler to the World: How Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals Kindle Edition

 

by Oliver Bullough  (Author)

 

 'A savage analysis of Britain's soul. As essential as Orwell at his best'

Peter Pomerantsev

 

 'Horribly brilliant'

James O'Brien

 

 The Suez Crisis of 1956 was Britain's twentieth-century nadir, the moment when the once superpower was bullied into retreat. In the immortal words of former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, 'Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role.' But the funny thing was, Britain had already found a role. It even had the costume. The leaders of the world just hadn't noticed it yet.

 

 Butler to the World reveals how the UK took up its position at the elbow of the worst people on Earth: the oligarchs, kleptocrats and gangsters. We pride ourselves on values of fair play and the rule of law, but few countries do more to frustrate global anti-corruption efforts. We are now a nation of Jeeveses, snobbish enablers for rich halfwits of considerably less charm than Bertie Wooster. It doesn't have to be that way.