Vladimir Putin is believed to have stashed millions of pounds of his personal wealth in London, with the UK’s new “kleptocracy” unit set to launch an investigation.
The Telegraph understands that the Russian president will be subject to an inquiry led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), working alongside the intelligence services.
A team will attempt to identify any assets owned by Putin in the UK, including through known associates and oligarchs.
The source said: “There are people working on it now. That is what the ‘kleptocracy’ team will be spending its time on. The unit will be tracking down Putin’s money and that of his acolytes.”
Putin is accused of accruing vast wealth, having allegedly received kickbacks on deals approved by the Kremlin involving tycoons friendly to the regime.
Bill Browder, an Anglo-American financier who has been instrumental in orchestrating sanctions against Putin’s closest associates, told a US Senate hearing in 2017 that Putin’s personal wealth could be as high as $200 billion, making him “the richest man in the world”.
‘Corrupt Russian assets hidden in the UK’
Boris Johnson announced at the start of the war that he was setting up a “combating kleptocracy cell” within the NCA to target “corrupt Russian assets hidden in the UK”.
The Government has placed Putin under sanctions, which means any assets identified by the NCA will be frozen.
The new unit will investigate not only sanction breaches but also corrupt elites, giving them the remit to look into Putin’s wealth.
His official declared annual income is about 10 million roubles, equivalent to a salary of £70,000 a year.
An NCA source said Putin and his associates would be targeted, although the source stressed that finding assets linked directly to the Kremlin will not be straightforward.
The NCA can draw on the intelligence agencies – MI5, MI6 and GCHQ – to bolster any investigation where justified.
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In Parliament on Tuesday, Chris Bryant, the Labour MP who has highlighted Russian corruption and called for tighter sanctions regimes, urged Treasury ministers to target Putin’s personal wealth, claiming much of it is in the UK.
Mr Bryant, a former Europe minister, said the Government must “start seizing assets and not just freezing them”, adding: “And mustn’t we really do far more to tackle the personal finances of President Putin, much of which is – I’m told – in the UK.”
An NCA spokesman said: “The NCA are working closely with government partners to establish the new cell at pace.
“We will use all legislative options and tactics available to the agency to pursue corrupt elites laundering their assets within the UK.
“We have already surged additional officers to support existing efforts and will further enhance the unit to progress what are inevitably complex and lengthy operations.”
The NCA has stressed that the new unit will not only investigate corrupt Russian money in the UK but other countries including Belarus, which has aided and abetted the invasion of Ukraine.
