More than 200 Russians who happened to be millionaires have used controversial “golden visas” to enter the UK ever since the government committed to stopping unscrupulous oligarchs misusing the system.
The idea was eventually abandoned in February 2022 as diplomatic tensions with Russia deteriorated. However, it had permitted 13,000 wealthy elites to bypass the immigration line provided they committed to spending millions of pounds in British businesses.
Ending the golden visa system will help halt dirty and corrupt elites who undermine the UK’s national security and pump filthy money around its cities.
However, according to an openDemocracy investigation, a considerable number of Russian billionaires continued to utilize the program after the government declared to have cleared it up in April 2015.
Ever since just seven Russian applications have been denied, while 202 Russian elites with at least £2 million in investments in UK enterprises have been granted golden visas.
Over 250 family members of these billionaires were also granted visas and can now live in the United Kingdom.
Labour MP Chris Bryant, who leads a parliamentary committee on Russia, has asked the government to investigate “every single” visa given under the scheme. Some UK officials believe that corrupt elites are endangering their national security.
Reports in 2020 by the Intelligence and Security Committee document how Russian oligarchs have exploited the golden visa system to make the UK a “particularly attractive destination for their money.”
“The UK embraced Russian money, and few, if any, questions were raised about the source of this significant cash,” it stated.
A Chatham House report on kleptocracy called the golden visas a “national shame,” noting that the system still had “severe faults and loopholes” despite the 2015 revisions.
“The UK has a long road ahead of it to confront the threats posed by its servicing of post-Soviet elites and the dubious wealth that floods into the nation in billions,” it cautioned.
Russian citizens are the second-largest group to have benefitted from the golden visa system, with around 900 Russian applications and 1,700 dependents being approved. Chinese residents and their families make up the largest category, with 4,247 successfully applying for golden visas.
As “high value” persons, they can avoid a punitive and time-consuming immigration process under the system.
The government statement
The government claimed in a statement last week that the plan was “under continual review” because “certain cases have raised security concerns, including persons gaining their money illegitimately and being tied with greater wrongdoing.”
Last year, however, more than 200 golden visas were given. For example, 22 golden visas were given to Russian millionaires.
An assessment of visas awarded under the scheme is set to be released “in the near future,” but opposition MPs have chastised the administration for failing to act sooner.
“The Conservatives failed to eliminate Russian money’s influence in Britain for years,” Labour’s shadow home minister Yvette Cooper said, adding that “global criticism of our inadequacies… compelled the home secretary to act.”
“We keep all visas under review,” a government official told openDemocracy, “and if any individual is discovered to have infringed their requirements, we will take action.”
