As Russia pummels an independent European state, all of us amateur current affairs enthusiasts are in a right old pickle. Where on earth will it all end up and how did the current and former leaders of the free world let it happen?

Corrupted by Roubles

I don’t really know but there is no doubting one thing. The west has allowed itself to be corrupted by roubles. Whether it is politicians dating back to the fall of the Berlin wall, landowners, construction companies, estate agents, jewelers, or football supporters on a hedonistic journey of instant success, we have all been at it. Russian finance has corrupted every corner of Britain.

As much as I want to blame Boris Johnson, it goes back way further than him. John Major’s government offered visas for cash. Blair’s New Labour saw the bank receipts and looked the other way. Under Cameron and Osborne, Russian finance turbocharged, and we all know that Johnson is like a kid in a sweet shop when it comes to bungs and free parties in oligarchs’ palaces.

Europe’s Corruption Capital

The truth is, London is the corrupt capital of Europe, if not the world. This was always going to come back and bite us. I was thinking the other day that even I have been propped up by dodgy finance. When getting paid for projects undertaken in Knightsbridge and Mayfair, I didn’t ask where the money was coming from. I was just happy to get paid. It may have been pounds and pence going into my bank account but a nervous glance at the top of the money chain would say otherwise. I am a one-man-band in Hampshire, so it’s a great example of how the money filters through to every fabric of British business.

The Oligarch pays the developer, the developer pays the builders, the builders pay the electrical contractors, the electrical contractors pay me. I pay the workers and they and I, pay the bills to supermarkets, mortgage, and utility companies who then pay their shareholders…and on it goes. It’s impossible to freeze the money now it is here. You would never be able to find it. Even if you could, it would end in multiple bankruptcies and a brutal recession. Freeze accounts now, and half the major construction projects in London stop. It’s a moral thing to do but the consequences are incalculable.

Londongrad

Years ago, I read a book called ‘Londongrad’. I did so because I was fascinated by the money flowing out of Russia into London. I can’t believe I am saying this, but it was a compelling and almost enjoyable read. However, all the way through reading the book, I was getting nagged by my conscience about where it would all end up before internal denialism took over. It was the same nagging feeling, followed by denialism, that I felt when Russia was accused of infiltrating and influencing western elections. Could Russia really be involved in dividing and isolating nations such as Trump’s America and Brexit Britain?

The US doesn’t look like the superpower it once was. Biden looks old, weak, and ponderous. The EU are weaker without the UK and the UK are weaker outside it. If that has been caused by the work of Putin’s cyber-attacks, credit where credit is due, it was a masterstroke. It all sounds like a conspiracy theory but that’s the brilliance of it. No one knows what is real and what is a conspiracy theory anymore. It is what Vladislav Surkov calls non-linear warfare. A state of existence where no one knows what the truth is. What happened to the ‘Russia Report’? Why weren’t we allowed to see it?

Divide & Conquer

What we do know is that Putin wants division. Britain becoming an isolated, populist state, is music to his ears. He has actively supported Le Pen in France and Orban in Hungary to name but two. He knows that if he can break up the EU, former soviet countries are there for the taking. That is why, above everything else, I felt like weeping when we decided to leave the EU. I wasn’t being anti-patriotic or any of that nonsense. I was concerned that a breakup of the union would end up with a host of rogue states.

I never thought we would be the first to become one.