British Government not covering themselves in glory, report from NY Times.
"The British government has allowed sanctioned Russian oligarchs to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on perks such as private chefs, chauffeurs and housekeepers, thanks to numerous sanction exemptions, according to a New York Times report.
In some cases, oligarchs were allowed more than $1m a year in living expenses, documents showed. In others, sanctioned were removed after legal battles.
Despite vowing to increase “pressure on Putin and cut off funding for the Russian war machine”, Britain granted the Russian banking tycoon Mikhail Fridman an exemption, known as a licence, to pay for 19 members of staff, including drivers, private chefs, housekeepers and handymen, during the first year of the war, the paper said.
Fridman’s former business partner, Petr Aven, received a monthly allowance of £60,000, the paper wrote. Fridman and Aven have both been described by the UK government as “pro-Kremlin oligarchs” who are closely associated with President Vladimir Putin.
The British Treasury granted at least 82 licenses last year and many more applications are pending, according to official figures seen by the paper."
