Readers' letters: Half-hearted sanctions are no threat to oligarchs

To see the hollowness of UK Government’s sanctions against Russia, look at the fact that 623 UK companies set up last year are Russia-controlled.

The City of London

It’s all legal with no checks carried out on information filed at Companies House. The UK Government is doing nothing to staunch the £100 billion per annum flow of dirty money through the City of London. And the free ports being forced on Scotland by London won’t have to divulge the nationality of any company using them.

In addition, there’s a glaring loophole in the UK sanctions on Russian banks that gives customers 30 days to remove their assets and close their accounts before the sanctions take effect.

Bill Browder, a leading campaigner against corruption in Russia, commented, “This is a ridiculous position for Britain to put itself in. An asset freeze needs to be immediate and total. If you are leaving those subject to it a month for the sanction to become active then anything you want to freeze will be long gone. It is absurd.”

Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh.

Don’t bother asking Yousaf for advice

Just when you think this SNP government can’t be anymore unprofessional, step forward our Health Secretary, Humza Yousaf.

On being asked when official guidance would be updated on such matters as treatment of strokes which has been withdrawn as it is ten years old, his advice to health practitioners leaves me astonished. He suggests that they “look to other up-to-date guidelines” to determine how they should proceed. What is the point of the tax-funded Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, the organisation that produces the guidelines if they are not keeping documents up to date? To be honest, what is the point of a tax funded Health Secretary who is not doing his job either?

I know that the public are being told not to visit A&E unless they are dying and we should be helping ourselves more rather than relying on our health care system, but I want my clinician to be using the guidelines put in place by a government’s specialists not having them check up on Google to see how they should proceed. I can see the compensation claims mounting already.

Jane Lax, Aberlour

It’s time Tory party handed back cash

As if the current Tory government wasn’t engulfed in enough corruption, the shocking invasion of Ukraine by Russia has brought yet another scandal into even higher relief.

With the EU and other European countries imposing punishing and immediate sanctions on Russian banks and Russian oligarchs who had found a safe haven in the UK, Johnson’s government has inexplicably given these super rich people a period of grace to get their billions out of the country.

Inexplicably if you don’t consider the millions ‘donated’ to the Tory party by these plutocrats.Over 25 Tory politicians that we know of have received large amounts of cash from prominent Russians linked to Putin based in the UK, including newly knighted Gavin Williamson, Rishi Sunak, Liam Fox, Dominic Raab and Ruth Davidson. To date, none of these ‘donations’ have been returned or given to the Ukraine disaster appeal.When someone bestows a large amount of money to another person it is usually the case they will want something back. Certainly it is common knowledge many of those oligarchs had a hotline to No. 10 and with the Russian banks and oligarchs being given time to shift their money out of the UK, it looks like that favour has been returned with interest.

D Mitchell, Edinburgh.

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