London, 2 Feb 2022 – It’s the day the Kremlin dubs British PM “utterly confused”, while a provocation via bombers direct to Britain launched the alert few hours after Boris Johnson spoke to Putin warning him an invasion would be a “tragic miscalculation”.
Meanwhile a sign of hope came from the British political turmoil where letters asking a no-confidence vote in the PM are adding up in view of Johnson to be ousted. In this frantic day the United States is deploying 3,000 troops to support NATO forces in eastern Europe (Germany, Poland and Romania, AP report) to defend Ukraine from Russian threat at its borders.
Furthermore US-UK special relations under the Democrat Biden are reduced to the latter being a mere western military base, the consequence of twelve years of Tory government and of the mud of Brexit which simply embarrassed the country’s diplomacy and international stand (except for the relations with the quasi-regime of Narendra Modi). Meanwhile the new Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, said will travel to Russia, “in a fortnight”.
Multiple warnings on the loss of international credibility of the UK Conservative led government came from within the Party in a moment of global ‘stage amber’ crisis, where Russia is building up a political-economic-defense block spanning from Iran to China. Former Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood launched several alarms on this, meanwhile filing the latest of the 54 needed letters to the 1922 Committee to get rid of the head of a state member of NATO and G7, who is under police investigation over the latest of a long list of corruption scandals.
As Ellwood stressed, these tough sanctions won’t deter Russian aggression, but would “drive Russia ever closer to China, which is exactly what Putin wants to do” he said Monday during a debate on Ukrainian crisis at the House of Commons. “Putin is using this crisis to re-align Russia militarily, economically and geopolitically with China, with massive political implications for the West”
Green leader Caroline Lucas accused the government of hypocrisy “when the Conservative party accepted donations from oligarchs, turned the blind eye when the Kremlin meddling in our democracy held the door open for Putin’s cronies to have their money laundered in London. What is the reason of the delay when it comes to the promised register of the Russian ownership of British properties…”.
There’s also the upcoming ‘sanctions bill’ next 10 February, which, in theory, would address the longstanding issue of the Russian influence in Britain: from the money laundering through huge real estate and financial investments to the donation to the Tories. Left alone companies linked to Russian oligarchs with revenues redirected to fiscal heavens.
“Our American alliance just issued an unprecedented rebuke to the British government saying that any sanctions would be worthless as long as London remains the main international laundering market for dirty Russian money”, said Labour MP Ben Bradshaw.
At least 700 Russian millionaires have been granted ‘golden visas’ to stay in the UK and this happening after the publication in 2020 of the ‘Russia report’ which gave legal evidence to donations from Russian oligarchs to the Tories and to the political interference from the Kremlin not only in the Brexit referendum but also in the Scottish independence one, in order to isolate and weaken the UK.
Talkeurope.org 