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Eliot Higgins: Labour calls for Jeremy Hunt to probe Treasury’s role in oligarch case [1]

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Date: 2023-01

Labour has called on the chancellor to investigate how a Russian oligarch and warlord was given permission to circumvent sanctions with a targeted legal attack on a British journalist in London’s courts.

Yesterday openDemocracy revealed how the UK Treasury had granted Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the notorious Wagner mercenary army, special permission in 2021 to sue journalist Eliot Higgins of investigations website Bellingcat. Prigozhin was at the time under sanctions for major crimes by his group in support of Putin’s war efforts across the world.

Sign-off from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, a department of the Treasury, meant Prigozhin in Russia could get full access to the finest legal representation in the UK. The office even granted permission for Prigozhin’s London lawyers to travel to St Petersburg to consult him personally, because sanctions meant he could not travel to Britain.

Now in response to openDemocracy’s revelations, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Pat McFadden has written to chancellor Jeremy Hunt calling for answers.

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“It is completely unacceptable that one of Putin’s allies was able to use the Treasury to attempt to subvert sanctions and silence a critical journalist,” he told openDemocracy.

“The chancellor must immediately explain how this was allowed to happen, and what steps he will take in the future to ensure that wealthy oligarchs are unable to use the Treasury or any government department as a weapon in this way.”

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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/prigozhin-labour-jeremy-hunt-russia-ukraine-eliot-higgins-libel/

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