[Rich]

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Politics Live: Clive Lewis stuns viewers with ex Russian politician's Boris Johnson Christmas card

A CONSERVATIVE MP was taken aback when a Labour representative revealed a copy of a Christmas card sent by a former Russian MP featuring a photo of Boris Johnson and reading “we open closed doors” during an episode of Politics Live.

The pair were appearing on the BBC’s political debate programme, discussing efforts to tackle Russian “dirty money” in the UK in the wake of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

After fury erupted last week over the Tories receiving nearly £2 million from Russian-linked donors since 2019, the Government is set to fast-track plans to tackle “dirty money” and expose foreign oligarchs who launder their wealth through the UK’s property market.

Following the package of sanctions announced by Johnson last week, ministers will table the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill – previously expected later in the session – in Parliament on Tuesday.

The legislation will establish a new register of overseas entities requiring foreign owners of property in the UK to declare their true identity, in a move intended to ensure criminals cannot hide behind secretive webs of shell companies.

Those that fail to comply will have restrictions placed on selling the property, while those who are found to have broken the rules will face up to five years in prison.

Discussing the measures on Politics Live, Labour MP Clive Lewis suggested they were coming too late.

“Let’s be clear here,” he told viewers. “It took troops amassing on the borders of Ukraine and an invasion for this Government to be pulled, dragged, kicking and screaming into bringing in the Economic Crime Bill … a bill that it was going to cancel, it quietly shelved, until a few weeks ago.

“To hear now Boris Johnson and other Tory ministers stand up and talk about this … so much of what they’re now proposing will not tackle the millions that have come in, of Russian money that has come into British politics.

“As I understand it, the two lists that Liz Truss and the Government have written and put down, none of those names on there are people who have financed the Conservative Party and put money into politics.”

Lewis then produced a photo copy of a Christmas card from a former Russian MP, whose company has boasted of offering “exclusive access” to UK Government ministers.

The National:

As originally reported in The Mirror, Sergey Penchinin had sent the festive message showing a photograph of himself with Boris Johnson, and reading “we open closed doors”.

Penchinin, who was a “senior adviser to a number of federal MPs and senators in Russia” and describes himself as an “effective lobbyist", says on LinkedIn that his firm can “introduce you to executives in the UK Government and held to build and maintain relations”.

The former Russian MP had previously met with David Cameron and Theresa May. Photographs on his social media showed him with Johnson on at least six occasions.

Holding up the card, Lewis told viewers: “I mean look – you’ve got a Christmas card from a former Putin politician saying ‘we open doors’, with Boris Johnson. I mean this is the state of our politics and frankly after 10 years of this government, of a Tory administration, to now suddenly be the champions of democracy … frankly it sucks.”

Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative MP who has been calling on the Government to act further and faster on Russian sanctions, sat silently for a second before clapping his hands in response.

The National:

“What can I say?” he asked the panel. “This is wrong and what we need to do … We didn’t understand what was going on, we didn’t appreciate the bigger picture here – not just here but right across the intelligence.

“What Russia has been doing, what Putin has been up to, he’s been planning for the last 10-15 years. We have failed to understand where this is going, failed to recognise the money coming into this country and yes, you’re absolutely right the Conservative Party didn’t do their due diligence in working out who was behind this money.

“We now recognise that that’s completely wrong, I do hope my party will make amends and look back at where this money has come from and react to it.”

Following reporting on the Christmas card, Penchinin told The Mirror he had met Johnson “a couple of times”, but that his donation to the Conservatives had been rejected due to his Russian passport.

He also told the newspaper: "I strongly support Ukraine and fled from Russia, they took away all my business from me."

A spokesperson for the Conservative Party added: “Donations to the Conservative Party are properly declared to the Electoral Commission and published by them, as per the requirements of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.


"As Electoral Commission records show, we have accepted no donations from this individual.”

Admin Edit: just watching Clive Lewis, mouth piece for Keir Starmer, essentially telling the British government to back off its robust support for Ukrainian self determination. This was the purpose of Putins nuclear weapons testament. Not a serious threat, I don't think Russia's nuclear forces have actually changed alert status at all. No the purpose was to embolden and strengthen the appeasers like Starmer in Britain and Scholz in Germany. Don't be fooled by these people, they were just flowing with the solidarity surge all the better to undermine it later.

When I first heard Zelensky's welcome for foreign fighters, I immediately started thinking about whether I could commit to going myself. The reason for this is not that I imagined I would be any great military asset to the Ukrainians. No any military contrition I might make might well not justify the costs in supply, administration etc. No the reason I felt it was vital to get as many foreign fighters from as many countries as possible as quickly as possible was diplomatic. Don't worry, I'm selfish, I value my life very highly and enjoy my life in peace in England. I'm no hero. But if we're to be honest, the greatest aid that a non Ukrainian European or American can give to the Ukrainian cause is go and fight in Ukraine, get themselves killed and sent back in a body bag to their home country.

If they get the chance the European establishment will sell Ukraine down the river at the first opportunity. This is why its so important to get non Ukrainians involved to entangle and embroil European states in this conflict against their will. Its vital that we muddy the border between Pax NATO and Pax Putin. Do what we can to maximise, not minimise the chance of "accidents" between NATO and Russia.

And this is why the UK government openly backing and supporting their citizens going to fight in Ukraine is so significant. Even when fighting with Kurds British citizens were threatened with prosecution. This is not business as usual. By standing up like this Boris Johnson has made himself the leader of the free world in opposition to Vladimir Putin. This might seem militarily incidental, but its scared Putin. Putin made his (seemingly phony) Nuclear statement in direct response to the statements of Boris Johnson's government.

[ingliz]

What a load of bollocks!

Truss, the cheese lady, witterings have been knocked down by the UK government. Look at the official advice on the Gov. website concerning Ukraine before spouting such inane rubbish.

[ingliz]

Here's a link to the 'put down' story

No 10 distances itself from Truss comments on UK volunteers for Ukraine

[Skynet]

Off topic:

600 Billions has the Russian Central Bank, but on foreign accounts... This is poor planing.

[Rich]

I was watching Politics Live on IPlayer, i didn't post a link as I wasn't sure how to create an accessible link to an IPlayer programme. I hadn't actually got to the bit of the irrelevant trivia about dirty money. I was responding to Lewis's much more important remarks.

It was commented in another thread somewhere that the Russians were making a mistake surrounding forces near Mariupol. This is exactly the place where it makes sense to cut off units. This is where Ukraine's hard core volunteer units like the Azov battalion, now integrated into the National Guard are deployed. If you let these units escape you will only have to fight them again another day.

For the rest of Ukraine Putin is employing a policy of voluntary ethnic cleasnsing in alliance with his liberal enablers in the West. For the rest of Ukraine he is leaving the door open. Of course the ethnic cleansing of Ukraine will be enabled under the guise of humanitarianism. I don't know what the real figures are but some say as many as half a million people have already left. if that figure is correct then the so called military operation can hardly be described as proceeding slowly. How many of those people will ever return to Ukraine? I don't know for certain, this is war which is inherently unpredictable. But I would say there's a good chance that most of them may never return.

But its mostly women and children that are leaving, the men are staying to fight? Yeah and if their women and children make lives in the West how long do you think it will be before their men folk follow them? As i say there will be a hard core including the likes of the Azov battalion who will be happy to stay on fight for months, years, even decades. But most people are unlikely to want to endure endless war without normal economic opportunities.

The question I am going to keep asking, is what is the establishment's end game. Its realistic end game, not its pompous moralising fantasy. You see the West loves painless sanctions, loves em, absolutely love them. I remember the shock I felt when I heard that eight hundred thousand people including half a million children had died because of Iraqi sanctions. I was totally perplexed I went around I couldn't find anyone who'd been bankrupted by sanctions let alone died from them. In fact it was hard to find anyone who was aware of materially losing out from the sanctions. This was in Britain, but it seemed the same in the US, in France in Germany. Then I found that the eight hundred thousand people, that half a million children were all Iraqis. it was all a storm in a tea cup. For anyone that really mattered the sanctions were painless. And we got the moral bonus of doing the right thing pretty much for free.

This could be the prospect with Russia, we could end up with months, years, decades even of painless sanctions. @ingliz you suggested that Putin should just grab some land in the South and East and settle. But how's that going to work. What prospect would he have of lifting the sanctions. His areas would be totally impoverished while the rest of Ukraine would not only be free from sanctions, but would probably fast tracked to eU membership and the benefit of at least some level of western support.

[ingliz]

His areas would be totally impoverished

I doubt it when oil's $100 a barrel.

China needs its oil, gas, and other resources: Pakistan too. Afghanistan would welcome the royalties from a pipeline to India.
And if he had limited his aims, Europe would have been back on the teat soon enough. Russia is a peculiarly American obsession and nobody really truly gives a fuck about Ukraine.

[Rich]

I doubt it when oil's $100 a barrel.

Real serious energy sanctions against Russia would not be painless for the West. so in a way that's a completely different question. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Iran has been under some kind of sanctions by the West for over 40 years now. What I love about these sanctions is that every day I when I get up i know western governments are combatting evil in Iran though sanctions. I know we are doing the right thing. I'm not quite sure what Iran exactly Iran is doing that is evil and I'm even less clear exactly how these sanctions are reducing that evil doing but I trust the establishment experts, we must have stopped a lot evil over the last four decades. Why not have another 4 decades of sanctions against Iran?

So leaving the question of serious energy sanctions aside, Russia's oil, gas and mining may be good for the Kremlin's coffers, but it will not being prosperity to the general population. East Ukraine has not done well economically, but the new areas under Russian control have done even worse.

China needs its oil, gas, and other resources: Pakistan too. Afghanistan would welcome the royalties from a pipeline to India.

Diverting energy production would not be easy. if it was it would already have been done. Russia has made progress though on being less reliant on pipelines transiting Ukraine.