4,403 views Mar 5, 2023 OXFORD
GUEST: Oliver Bullough – Journalist and Author.
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“A toxic flood of dark money has given billionaires and special interests a powerful way to rig the system secretly in their favour…” These are the words of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, ahead of a debate in the US Congress around the Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act. But this phrase could equally be applied to the UK, where Russian Oligarchs and dark money interests have been able to cleanse their ill-gotten gains for decades through the London financial laundromat. Londongrad is the phrase coined to describe the high presence of Russians in the United Kingdom, especially in reference to Russian money in London, permeating its service sector and securing political influence.
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SPEAKER:
Oliver Bullough is a Journalist at the Guardian, GQ, BBC, etc. He writes about financial crime, kleptocracy, and offshore shenanigans (as he calls them). He is best known for his books Let Our Fame Be Great, which was nominated for the Orwell Prize, (and is set in the Caucasus mountains) and The Last Man in Russia, nominated for the Dolman Prize and which won the Overseas Press Club’s Cornelius Ryan Award. In later books Oliver has focused on financial crime, Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back, Butler to the World: How Britain Helps the World’s Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything. Today we’ll combine his twin passions by looking at how Londongrad became the world’s laundromat for corrupt oligarchs to cleanse their money, and attain respectability, influence, and privilege in the West.
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BOOKS:
Butler to the World: The book the oligarchs don’t want you to read –
how Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals (2022)
Moneyland: Why Thieves And Crooks Now Rule The World And How To Take It Back (2018)
The Last Man in Russia: And The Struggle To Save A Dying Nation (2013)
Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys among the defiant people of the Caucasus (2010)
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LINKS:
https://www.codastory.com/author/oliv…

Russia is kidnapping our children. It is the largest state-sponsored kidnapping of 🇺🇦 children. With this forced deportation, 🇷🇺 tries to erase the family & national identity of young Ukrainians. It is the genocide of a nation. Everyone who organized it will be held to account. pic.twitter.com/BHiftawDzf

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 7, 2023

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Oliver Bullough – Russian Money in London Permeated its Service Sector & Secured Political Influence | http://bit.ly/41StP9R | Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance ~ Jonathan Swift