Nicola Sturgeon has called on the prime minister to tackle the corrupting influence of Russian oligarchs in London’s financial industry and the Conservative party, suggesting that his inaction has directly contributed to Vladimir Putin’s sense of impunity over Ukraine.
As Boris Johnson flew to Kyiv on Tuesday – in a show of solidarity and with hopes of distracting from the continuing domestic crisis around Downing Street’s lockdown parties – Sturgeon urged him to “rebuild his government’s tattered reputation” by taking overdue action on Russian funding in the Conservative party and “Londongrad”-style influence operations in the UK.
Writing for the Guardian, Scotland’s first minister said: “We cannot be blind to the circumstances which have led to the current crisis, and that includes the situation where wealth with direct links to the Putin regime has been allowed to proliferate here in the UK with often the scantest of regard paid to its provenance or to the influence it seeks to bring to bear on our society.
“[Johnson] must recognise that both his government and his party have enabled this situation, and he must acknowledge that the most resolute action he can take is at home, to rebuild his government’s tattered reputation.”
Describing the current political and military threat to Ukraine as “unspeakable”, Sturgeon said: “Like any European country, Ukraine must be free to organise its governance and security alliances as it sees fit.”
She added: “As someone who has spent my life campaigning for the sovereign right of the people of Scotland to determine our own futures, this is a principle fundamental to my own worldview. To see such pressures being exerted on a state which has resolutely set itself on a path to integration with the liberal democratic order is unspeakable.”
Sturgeon went on to repeat her call for Westminster to legislate on the improper use of Scottish limited partnerships, a type of investment fund heavily criticised for facilitating the laundering of international criminal proceeds.
“Corruption and lack of transparency is a drag on liberal democracy, and authoritarians have become adept at using these scandals as a way of saying to people ground down by them that somehow all forms of government are the same, and all politicians are as bad as each other.”
On Monday, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, unveiled legislation to allow Britain to hit banks, energy companies and “oligarchs close to the Kremlin” with economic sanctions in the event of Russian invasion of Ukraine, but anti-corruption campaigners urged the UK government to act now.
