Russian Boomerang Hits UK, Oligarchs Shift Assets From London

We warned 4 months ago that the UK especially should be fearful of sanctioning Russia and biting the hand that feeds its real estate recovery. However, it appears Cameron’s ire has got the better of him, as The Telegraph reports, allies of Vladimir Putin are understood to be moving assets after British demands to punish the Russian president’s ‘cronies’ in the wake of the Malaysia Airlines disaster in Ukraine. The EU said Tuesday (albeit somewhat confusingly) that it had agreed to draw up a list of Russians who will face sanctions but the UK government refused to say which ‘oligarchs’ were being targeted as it was fearful of the risk of ‘asset flight’. It appears that backfired…

As The Telegraph reports,

Russian oligarchs are moving money out of London following threats of tough financial sanctions in the wake of the attack on Flight MH17, Downing Street has said.
Allies of Vladimir Putin are understood to be reacting after British demands to punish the Russian president’s “cronies”.

The European Union on Tuesday agreed to draw up a list of Russians who will face sanctions following the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane, which killed 298 people.

…

No 10 refused to say which oligarchs were being targeted because of the risk of “asset flight”.

…

Asked whether oligarchs were already moving assets out of London, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The measures that have been taken with regard to individuals and entities has got a correlation with some of the financial flows we have seen across Europe including here in London. That’s certainly the case.”