(2 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberMy right hon. Friend is right. The reality is that Putin has made these threats to distract from his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. We are being targeted because the UK has been leading on measures both to support Ukraine and to degrade the Russian economy, and the Russians do not like it.
Earlier, we unfortunately had an opaque response to my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Cat Smith) on oligarchs’ financing of the Conservative party, and the right hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber (Ian Blackford) has also raised the question of the £2.3 million of donations. Would the Foreign Secretary like to take this opportunity to commit today to giving that money from Russian oligarchs directly to charities that will be supporting Ukrainian refugees—not, I hope, in picking vegetables, but being in this country in safety?
As I have said, we cannot tar every single person of Russian origin with the same brush. We are targeting oligarchs close to Putin without fear or favour and freezing bank assets without fear or favour, and we will continue to do so.