Anastasia Nesvetailova analyses the premises, aims and likely efficacy of UK’s new policy targeting Russian ‘dirty’ money. Her argument is threefold: a) the premise that all Russian money inflows into London are ‘dirty’ over-simplifies the state of the economy and the nature of London as a global financial centre; b) in practice, distinguishing between ‘dirty’ money and ‘clean’ capital being used in London is likely to be impossible; c) in the face of Brexit, the UK’s proclaimed policy tackling dirty money inflows is likely to be toothless.
