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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Shaun Walker

UK government ‘let lawyers bypass sanctions’ to help Putin ally sue journalist

Yevgeny Prigozhin pictured in 2016.
Yevgeny Prigozhin pictured in 2016. Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

British lawyers were given government dispensation to bypass sanctions in order to help Yevgeny Prigozhin, the controversial Russian businessman and Wagner group founder, sue a journalist, according to documents made available to the website Open Democracy.

The documents concern a libel case brought by Prigozhin against Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative group Bellingcat, in 2021. The revelations will raise further questions about the controversial use of libel law in the UK by super-rich, non-nationals.

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