The daughter of Sergei Lavrov’s mistress should be among the family members of Vladimir Putin’s cronies targeted with sanctions, MPs and campaigners said on Thursday.
Ministers were urged to personally target the loved ones of those at the top of the Kremlin as they prepared for a fresh round of sanctions as early as next week.
The Russian foreign minister’s alleged “second family”, including Svetlana Polyakova, his mistress, and Polina Kovaleva, her 26-year-old daughter, were identified as among those officials should look at.
Around 140 Russian oligarchs and “enablers” of Vladimir Putin have now been named in the House of Commons, but asset freezes have only been placed on 23 Russian oligarchs, as well as the Russian president and Lavrov, since the invasion commenced.
As billionaire Roman Abramovich was added to the sanction list on Thursday, government sources claimed their strategy was part of a ratcheting up of action against Putin.
A foreign office source told The Telegraph: “Liz [Truss] and the Government’s strategy is to debilitate the Russian economy – taking it out at the knees.
It was also designed to send “a signal that no one and nothing is off the table in terms of sanctions, now and in the future”, the Whitehall insider said.
But MPs questioned why the Government’s list was still dwarfed by the hundreds of individuals and entities sanctioned by the EU and the US.
Ministers have claimed that their actions have been hampered by the evidence threshold required under current laws, but emergency legislation is due to pass next week.
Layla Moran MP, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for foreign affairs and international development, said: “The Government is still way behind the EU and the US. The legislation hasn’t passed yet, so if they can act against Abramovich now why not the others?”
Ms Moran called for action against 35 named “key enablers” of Putin in the House of Commons last month, including Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska, who was also added to the UK sanction list on Thursday.
But many others on that list have been sanctioned in the EU or US but not in the UK.
This includes Victor Zolotov, who leads Russia’s National Guard and whose family is one richest in Russia in the real estate sector; Anton Vaino, Putin’s chief of staff; and Mikhail Mishustin, the Russian prime minister.
Ms Moran told the Telegraph that officials should also look at “the family and friends” of Putin’s cronies as “one of the ways that they get around sanctions is to transfer funds and assets to family members”.
“They should be included in the list and ideally it should be automatic,” she said.
Maria Pevchikh, the head of the investigations at Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, named members of Lavrov’s family including Ms Polyakova and Ms Kovaleva as those who should have their assets frozen. Her calls were backed by MP Chris Bryant.
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Ms Polyakova, an actress and restaurateur, is said to have been in a relationship with Lavrov since the early 2000s and documents unearthed by the foundation show she has been abroad with the foreign minister more than 60 times, including on diplomatic missions.
Her family’s lifestyle and growing multi-million-pound property portfolio is alleged to have been bankrolled by her lover. Miss Kovaleva’s now-deleted Instagram account shows her relaxing on a yacht owned by Deripaska.
Miss Kovaleva bought Kensington apartment in cash
A profile of the 26-year-old on the Imperial College website reveals that she had studied for a master’s in Economics & Strategy for Business in 2018 after working for Gazprom, the Russian oil giant.
In 2016, Miss Kovaleva, then aged 21, paid cash for a £4.4 million apartment on Kensington High Street.
Ms Pevchikh asked: “Can anyone explain how this is possible?
“Polina has to pack her Louis Vuitton suitcases, say goodbye to her British life and leave the UK. Should she not be able to explain where she got the £4.4 million from, her property must be arrested under the Unexplained Wealth Order procedure.”
Miss Kovaleva could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
Liz Truss is planning to unveil the next tranche of sanctions as early as next week, with at least half a dozen names expected to be added to the list, once the Economic Crime Bill becomes law.
The Government does not comment in advance on the target of sanctions, partly for legal reasons, and partly to avoid tipping off oligarchs and allowing them time to move their assets out of the country.
However, Britain has made clear its intention to sanction the 351 members of the Duma who voted to recognise Donetsk and Luhansk as independent, thereby undermining Ukrainian sovereignty.
