Londongrad

Londongrad: From Russia With Cash; The Inside Story of the Oligarchs

by Mark Hollingsworth and Stewart Lansley  · 22 Jul 2009  · 471pp  · 127,852 words

wife Sophia loved London and frequented the nearby Harry’s Bar restaurant on South Audley Street. The couple were desperate to become players in the Londongrad community, and their dream came true on 27 December 2001 when Kay was granted an investor’s visa, requiring him to deposit at least £1

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. Dominated by extravagant marble surfaces, the oligarch installed his young Russian girlfriend into the property. The brothers even started to emulate the lifestyles of their Londongrad clients, buying their own £10 million second-hand yacht, Candyscape, joining the private jet set, and moving to Monte Carlo. Like many of their clients

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, sometimes in cash, sometimes via offshore companies. It was a group that sowed the first seeds of the spending frenzy that was later to typify Londongrad’s super-rich community, although to a greater extreme in the years to come. One Russian who knew some of them well was Alexander Nekrassov

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millennium that London’s top property agents and exclusive retailers began to feel the full impact of the Russian invasion. The birth of super-rich Londongrad can really be dated to April 2000, the month Vladimir Putin was elected President, when the febrile state of Russian politics and the oligarchs’ uneasy

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’ by excited tabloids - meant that he would never again be able to escape the limelight. It was also a defining moment in the history of Londongrad. ‘Before that the Russians were not particularly conspicuous when it came to the wider public,’ said Alexander Nekrassov. ‘Nor had the media cottoned on to

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of his car while his bodyguards and retinue travel with him in four separate 4x4s. High-level and expensive security is a trademark of the Londongrad set, many of whom enjoy better security than the British Prime Minster. Yuri Shlyaifstein, once dubbed the ‘King of Aluminium’ in Russia, bought a house

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neither mistresses nor predators. Many are educated, elegant, and erudite, albeit with irresistibly long legs and high cheekbones - a lethal combination. For the ladies of Londongrad, the English complement the qualities they themselves possess. ‘There’s something about the English sense of tolerance and love of tradition that marries very well

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just for the oligarchs but also for Anglo-Russian relations. For the first time it thrust the uglier side of the previously hidden activities of Londongrad into the spotlight. Like his two companions in the Pine Bar that afternoon, Litvinenko had once been a loyal and committed member of the KGB

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the radiation. Security services around the world were left wondering if such an attack might happen again. Up to this point, the seedier side of Londongrad - the commercial vendettas, activities of intelligence agents, human trafficking - had mostly been hidden from public view. The police and intelligence agencies monitored and investigated the

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of how the raw business methods of many of the new plutocrats - built on litigation, distrust, and security - had spilt over into the heartland of Londongrad. The ‘writ’ stemmed from 2001 when Berezovsky claimed that he had been ‘induced’ into selling valuable shares in two companies they jointly owned - the oil

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know I would have chosen wrong. These days, money is deadlier than polonium.’ This has not made Cherney - by now a fledgling member of the Londongrad community - back away from his billion-pound feud with Deripaska. Both are Teflon oligarchs - not much sticks to them and they both have thick skins

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had bought to invest appeared to be holding on. In fact, far from selling up, some of the oligarchs showed every sign of strengthening their Londongrad roots. Abramovich’s children continued to be educated in west London and in July 2008 they began taking lessons at riding stables, accompanied not merely

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a natural next step for them. The arrival of the credit crunch put a stop to such ambitions.’ Meanwhile, there was new intrigue within the Londongrad community. In June 2008 the FBI launched an investigation into the disappearance and possible murder of London-based media tycoon Leonid Rozhetskin. The Russian-born

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in the UK, he entered the Sunday Times Rich List at number thirty with a fortune estimated at £2 billion. His membership of the swelling Londongrad community hostile to their homeland added to the increased tension in the already embittered British-Russian relationship. ‘Why do you allow the territory of GB

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, mansions, and rare art collections had already fallen into Russian hands, but this was in many ways a more significant moment in the story of Londongrad. A British newspaper had not merely been taken over by a Russian - an event that would have elicited a splenetic reaction from the British media

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, professional, or rich Russian settlers. Russian plutocrats continued to flit around the globe in search of the best financial deals, albeit with slightly shallower pockets. Londongrad continued to fizz with stories of intrigue and new arrivals. The Russian oligarchs and multi-millionaires may have been down but they were far from

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of Capital Flight Due to Abnormal Pricing in International Trade. The Russia-US Case’, CIBER Working Paper, Florida International University, 2004. 36Michael Freedman, ‘Welcome to Londongrad’, Forbes Global, 23 May 2005; see R. Skidelsky, St Petersburg Times, 4 January 2003; David Satter, Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal

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the London Evening Standard magazine, ES, and the paper’s former editor Veronica Wadley deserve credit for understanding the importance of the oligarchs and the Londongrad phenomenon. The Frontline Club in London, which champions independent journalism throughout the world, has promoted a greater understanding of all things Russian. In the United

Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies

by Barry Meier  · 17 May 2021  · 319pp  · 89,192 words

articles about oligarchs, corporate chicanery, and corrupt politicians. He consulted with the British Broadcasting Corporation on investigative pieces and authored several books, including one titled Londongrad, which chronicled that city’s invasion by wealthy businessmen from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Then, his life as a journalist

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written questions. the “Kazakh Trio” or the “Trio”: The three oligarchs who composed the Trio were Patokh Chodiev, Alexander Machkevitch, and Alijan Ibragimov. one titled Londongrad: That book, which Hollingsworth coauthored with Stewart Lansley, was published in 2010 by Fourth Estate. his corporate bio stated: Robert Trevelyan was involved with numerous

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–227 email hack of, 225–227, 300 ENRC and, 73–76, 138, 223–225, 227, 230–231, 290, 301 Kazakh Trio investigation by, 228–229 Londongrad, 74, 290 personal characteristics, 72 physical appearance, 72 Simpson’s connection to, 75–76, 227 Steele’s connection to, 138, 227 Holmes, Elizabeth, 92, 93

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, Robert, 132, 133 Lichtblau, Eric, 149, 156–157, 159 Litvinenko, Alexander, 121, 260–261 lobbyists, 59–60, 138–139, 180, 214 London Evening Standard, 228 Londongrad (Hollingsworth & Lansley), 73, 290 Los Angeles Times, 86, 87–88, 292 Low, Jho, 176, 298 Maddow, Rachel, 212, 234, 240–241 Magnitsky, Sergei, 60, 82

Who Owns England?: How We Lost Our Green and Pleasant Land, and How to Take It Back

by Guy Shrubsole  · 1 May 2019  · 505pp  · 133,661 words

_r_e_t. Such has been the impact of Russian investment on the capital – and its house prices – that investigative journalist Mark Hollingsworth dubs it ‘Londongrad’. By 2006, the Russians had become the biggest foreign buyers in London. It doesn’t stop there, however: some oligarchs have acquired a taste for

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, ‘Inside ‘Billionaires Row’: London’s rotting, derelict mansions worth £350m’, Guardian, 31 January 2014. around $170 billion Figures cited in Mark Hollingsworth and Stewart Lansley, Londongrad (Fourth Estate, 2009), p. 61. successive influxes Luke Harding, A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia’s War

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detective work Ed Caesar, ‘House of secrets: who owns London’s most expensive mansion?’, New Yorker, 1 June 2015. biggest foreign buyers Hollingsworth and Lansley, Londongrad, p. 134. townhouse in Chester Square Graham Norwood, ‘Why London’s Chester Square remains a premier address’, Financial Times, 18 March 2016. £90m pad Ryan

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application for the property: http://planningpublicaccess.southdowns.gov­.uk/online-applications­/applicationDetails­.do­?activeTab­=details&keyVal=NKSQC6TUN2800. Abramovich’s ultimate ownership is detailed in Hollingsworth, Londongrad, p. 124. 500-acre Sutton Place Approximate area derived from measuring the map polygons: http://www.private-eye­.co.uk/registry­. Delesius Investments See http

Migrant City: A New History of London

by Panikos Panayi  · 4 Feb 2020

, 355–7, 405–12. 152. John Sweeney, ‘Among the Russians’, Time Out, 9–15 April 1986, pp. 18–21. 153. Mark Hollingsworth and Stewart Lansley, Londongrad: From Russia with Cash: The Inside Story of the Oligarchs (London, 2009), pp. 24, 117–29. 154. Ramy M. K. Aly, Becoming Arab in London

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, 2006). 136. Guardian, 28 May 2018. 137. Vidya Ram, ‘Britain Proposes Controversial Changes to Investor Visas’, Businessline, 26 February 2014; Mark Hollingsworth and Stewart Lansley, Londongrad: From Russia with Cash: The Inside Story of the Oligarchs (London, 2009), p. 24; John Lanchester, ‘Why the Super-Rich Love the UK’, Guardian, 24

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). Hill, Clifford D., West Indians and the London Churches (Oxford, 1963). Hogarth, George, The Philharmonic Society of London (London, 1862). Hollingsworth, Mark and Lansley, Stewart, Londongrad: From Russia with Cash: The Inside Story of the Oligarchs (London, 2009). Hooton-Smith, Eileen, The Restaurants of London (London, 1928). Hueffer, Frances, Half a

The Cost of Inequality: Why Economic Equality Is Essential for Recovery

by Stewart Lansley  · 19 Jan 2012  · 223pp  · 10,010 words

, 2011, p 74. 159 Ibid. p 78. 160 The Observer, 24 December, 2006. 161 M Hollingsworth and S Lansley, Londongrad, Fourth Estate, 2009, ch 4. 162 Ibid. 163 Michael Freedman, ‘Welcome to Londongrad’, Forbes Global, 23 May 2005; R. Skidelsky, St Petersburg Times, 4 January 2003; David Satter, Darkness at Dawn: The

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Rush Top Man: How Philip Green Built His High Street Empire (with Andy Forrester) Rich Britain: The Rise and Rise of the New Super-Wealthy Londongrad: From Russia With Cash (with Mark Hollingsworth) Copyright First published in 2012 by Gibson Square Tel: +44 (0)20 7096 1100 info@gibsonsquare.com www

The Enablers: How the West Supports Kleptocrats and Corruption - Endangering Our Democracy

by Frank Vogl  · 14 Jul 2021  · 265pp  · 80,510 words

on their bribery and other illicit income, so they swiftly secure safe investment havens. For example, realtors in what has come to be known as “Londongrad” sell properties to foreign clients without pursuing meaningful checks on where they obtained their cash. And, to take another example, kleptocrats buying the greatest works

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holding companies, and finally, into investment assets, including properties, in the much larger markets of North America and Western Europe.2 Real estate enablers in “Londongrad” have been plying their trade for decades, representing clients who use offshore holding companies, often registered in such places as the British Virgin Islands and

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links to Putin who are well integrated into the UK business and social scene and accepted because of their wealth. This level of integration—in “Londongrad” in particular—means that any measures now being taken by the Government are not preventative but rather constitute damage limitation. It is not just the

Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy

by Quinn Slobodian  · 4 Apr 2023  · 360pp  · 107,124 words

in real estate through massive sovereign wealth funds. By 2005, Russian oligarchs seeking places to park their wealth overseas earned Britain’s capital the nickname Londongrad.69 In a symbolic moment, the oligarch Roman Abramovich bought West London’s Chelsea Football Club in 2003. China’s precipitous rise also meant more

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, “Global Cities at Any Cost: Resisting Municipal Mercantilism,” City 21, no. 1 (2017): 7–8.   68.  Leon, “Global Cities,” 16.   69.  Michael Freedman, “Welcome to Londongrad,” Forbes, May 23, 2005, https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/0523/158.html. See Oliver Bullough, Butler to the World: How Britain Helps the World

The City

by Tony Norfield  · 352pp  · 98,561 words

, available at lexology.com. 9Philip Stafford and Brooke Masters, ‘Libor Deal Commences Rehabilitation of Benchmark’, Financial Times, 9 July 2013. 10Mark Hollingsworth and Stewart Lansley, Londongrad: From Russia with Cash. The Inside Story of the Oligarchs, London: Fourth Estate Ltd, 2010. 11Nicholas Watt, ‘UK Seeking to Ensure Russia Sanctions Do Not

Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order

by Parag Khanna  · 4 Mar 2008  · 537pp  · 158,544 words

sponsoring of nationalistic youth cults failed to silence the many Russians who want more such European intrusions. Wealthy Russians prefer to boost the economies of “Londongrad” and Berlin—where exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky openly called for a coup to depose Putin—depriving the Kremlin even further of talent and resources, while

Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens

by Nicholas Shaxson  · 11 Apr 2011  · 429pp  · 120,332 words

Gap Series,” The Guardian, February 14, 2009. 21.Prem Sikka, “UK Company Law Is Terrorism’s Friend,” The Guardian, January 20, 2010. 22.Will Stewart, “Londongrad . . . Russia’s Money Laundry,” The Express (UK), February 27, 2010; and “Britain Called Crooks’ Haven,” Sydney Morning Herald, February 28, 2010. 23.See “Lloyds Forfeits

Inequality and the 1%

by Danny Dorling  · 6 Oct 2014  · 317pp  · 71,776 words

The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World

by Peter Frankopan  · 14 Jun 2018  · 352pp  · 80,030 words