It takes less than a minute before a security guard appears. “You’re trespassing,” he says in a threatening voice. In the distance behind him is the gateway to St George’s Hill, England’s Beverly Hills, where a quarter of the population is said to be wealthy Russians, who are said to be Vladimir Putin’s two daughters. They don’t have to worry about their privacy and security. All entrances are gated and the only dogs let out here are guard dogs.
London and the surrounding counties have been known for years as a haven for Russian oligarchs. The benefits of English life are many: excellent education for the children, a friendly investment climate and plenty of opportunity to spend money, plus the traditional benefits: language, time zone and top lawyers. No wonder London has been nicknamed Londongrad, or the London Laundromat, London the money laundering machine.
Putin’s war in Ukraine has sparked unrest in the Anglo-Russian paradise. “Finally they wake up in the most corrupt place in the world,” says Roman Borisovich. ‘There is more dirty money per square meter here than anywhere else.’ For years, the anti-corruption activist who fled from Russia has been organizing the Kleptotours, tours of the multi-million dollar properties of the oligarchs in London, including the recently squatted building of the aluminum czar Oleg Deripaska by activists. The ‘liberation of the building’, as the squatters called it, did not last long. The police quickly arrived on the scene.
Special attention is now being paid to the buildings in which the 68-year-old Putin himself is said to have placed part of his assets through family and friends. Officially, the president earns the equivalent of 84 thousand euros per year, plus his KGB pension. During a US Senate hearing, Bill Browder, who in his book Enemy of the Russian State wrote about the corruption in the Kremlin, said Putin’s assets are approaching 200 billion euros. A special klepto unit has meanwhile been set up within the National Crime Agency, by order of the government, to hunt down Putin’s pounds.
Putin’s daughters
This will include a climb up St George’s Hill. The 420 tucked-away villas on this green hill just south-west of London have always been popular with pop artists (Elton John, Cliff Richard, Engelbert Humperdinck) and football players from Chelsea (aka ‘Chelski’), which has its training complex nearby. There have been here in recent years, the newspaper reported The Daily Mail, limousines with Russian flags signaled. They would belong to Putin’s daughters Maria and Katerina.
The seclusion of the hill – which is surrounded by a business park, golf courses, care homes and an animal cemetery – is an advantage for the Russians. Behind the barriers they are not bothered by squatters and klepto tourists. As early as 2003, British writer Iain Sinclair, while walking the nearby M25 ring road, described the local beauty salon’s clientele as ‘mafia wives from Moscow† The Russian businessman Aleksandr Perepilichny also lived here, who died suddenly ten years ago while jogging in London. He had given documents about corruption in the Russian Ministry of Finance to the Swiss Public Prosecution Service.
It is not without historical irony that multimillionaires of all people who have benefited from the fall of communism have hidden themselves on this hill. After the English Civil War in the 17th century, The Diggers had arrived here, religious and political freedom fighters who tried to set up an agrarian-socialist community here. More than 370 years later, even the hiking trails around this mysterious hill are closed. On a deserted BMX track in a forest on the edge of the millionaire colony, there are even Private Property signs on the trees.
‘The Russians? They live in a different world’, says an inhabitant of a small flat with a view of the roofs of the villas. “They’re there, but you never see them. Good luck trying to get into their territory.’ The best way to get close to the villas is through Google Maps. The most striking building is Bolsover House, a white palace next to the exclusive golf course on the hill that can be rented for the equivalent of 84 thousand euros per week. ‘Definitely enjoyable’, reads a recent review, ‘but if the wind comes from a certain direction, the novichok will blow at you.’ The joke refers to the nerve agent poisoning a former KGB agent five years ago in the small town of Salisbury.
Lord Lebedev
The big question is whether the government will really take action, especially since the Conservative Party has benefited from generous donations from Russia until the day Putin started his war. In fact, British intelligence is concerned about the good friendship between Boris Johnson and Lord Lebedev, the wealthy son of a KGB agent who is in the House of Lords thanks to the Prime Minister. As foreign minister, Johnson set alarm bells ringing a few years ago by partying at Lebedev’s villa, located on another ‘Russian’ hill, in Tuscany.
In England, the rubles have created an entire ecosystem of lawyers, jurists, bankers, brokers, PR firms, accountants, but also movers, cleaners and goldsmiths. According to Borisovich, it is about much more than just the villas. The wrong money is very deep in the island economy. “A lot of money is being made from Putin’s loot. Take PhosAgro. That chemical company was one-fifth owned by a professor whose enormous wealth can only be explained by his friendship with Putin. That was known, and yet Credit Suisse and Citibank just floated it on the London Stock Exchange.’
The litmus test is what will happen to the real estate that shadowy Russians, like a matryoshka, have wrapped in layers of overseas letterbox firms. Although private property is well protected by English law, according to commercial attorney Jonathan Compton, it is perfectly possible to expropriate buildings ‘if they were purchased through money laundering or other criminal activities’. The call from politicians and activists to use such villas for the reception of Ukrainian refugees is growing louder.
Near the entrance to St George’s Hill, a local resident has already hung the blue and yellow flag on the facade.
