UK government ‘let lawyers bypass sanctions’ to help Putin ally sue journalist | Documents seen by Open Democracy show UK firm got approval to engage with Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin

5 comments

1. >For years, Prigozhin denied all links to the Wagner group of mercenaries which was active in Syria and many African countries, and brought a case against Higgins over claims he was linked to Wagner’s misdeeds.

   >In September last year, Prigozhin admitted he founded Wagner in 2014, and said he had brought court cases against journalists who had made the claims as “in any issue there should be room for sport”.

   >Lawyers from Discreet stopped representing Prigozhin in March, a month after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the case was eventually struck out in May. Higgins, however, was left with estimated costs of £70,000.

   I’m sure the UK government could find a spare £70,000 to reimburse Bellingcat. Maybe BoJo could look in his couch? Or Sunak? Because it was the Tories who allowed this Wagner shithead to bypass sanctions.

2. “clearly illegitimate” my ass. If the government says it’s legitimiate, it is legitimate.

3. Who in his right mind would still vote for Tories?

   Such an utter shitshow beyond any comprehension.

   Old people trying to be hip. [Embarrassing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbCDFNRA-Wo).

4. Londongrad doing Londongrad things…

5. London washes Russian money. The Tories thought that would be enough to survive Brexit. They were wrong. As always.

   But that’s not the point, of course. The damage is done and the perps got away with it.