well, for advocating for an end to the influence of religion on public life, in saudi arabia, he was given a 10 year jail sentence on the charge of insulting is long. that's it for me say, june, for the latest business headlines. thanks for your company. with

hey there, i'm david, and this is climate change. briggs, it sucks. oh, how business in 3 books. this is the book for you. you'll get smarter for free, dw books on you to say good bye to london grad rushes. oligarchs have long use the u. k. capital as a playground is that party coming to an end, and we take you to switzerland, home to some of the world's most secret of bank. they to want to wash their hands of russian money. i'm chelsea delaney in berlin. welcome to the show. the u. k. on friday, announce sanctions against 386 russian parliamentarians who supported president vladimir putin sworn ukraine. it's the latest blow to russia's leaves. the countries, oligarchs have become targets of western sanctions,

with their money. yachts in real estate being seized, london, which has long been known as a playground for russian oligarchy, is particularly in focus there get mass reports. we have an appointment at the ritz, one of the swankiest addresses in london with bill browder. he was once one of russia's top foreign born investors, but quickly became an opponent of latimer putin before being expelled from the country. he is now living in london and has one of the kremlin st biggest critics. britain has been a, i'm a soft spot for dirty russian money for last 20 years. they've come here. ah, they, they like the rule of law. they like the property rights. and they like the fact that nobody could ask any questions. we're heading to the posh district of berg ravia to eat and square nick named red square, asking prices for a 5 bedroom flat here, which over $20000000.00 euros. as for who the real owners are. no one needs to know

anti corruption activists estimate that russians with ties to putin have invested almost 2000000000 euros in real estate alone. in recent years. there are shells, shell companies and trusts in an offshore crossen nominees and proxies all working hard to shield the true ownership of these properties. it's on the capital, the nickname, london, ground, a city, a wash with money from the many rich russians who call it home. and not all of them have earned income. honestly, this week, the british parliament is passing a new law to cut the corrupt flow of money from russia to untangle opaque ownership stretches. but this is only a 1st step. experts say, legislation is just not enough. enforcement needs to be happen and it needs to be properly funded on vessels. what happens right now is that the national crime

agencies has been on the thunder for up a generation. so what we need to see now is for life of men, agencies to be funded, to act now and use a tool that they are given at the moment. so security personnel on eton square tried to prevent us from recording if i was your fucking, mom is a democracy and we, despite us having the right to film on this straight to santa, if your point of view, you can film on july. first and foremost, i'd like to see 100 all a guards on the sanctions west having their properties frozen. secondly, i'd like to see assets identified and frozen after that. and thirdly, i'd like to see all of the russian banks, not just a few of them disconnected from swift. his criticism also has a personal motivation, broadest friend and company, low, yet died in the russian prison. he's long known how dangerous letting me put in is russian oligarchs, and in fact, anyone else who wanted to loan to the money have so far been serve as well. in

london, it's been easy to find bankers, lawyers, estate agents to work with. when it comes to property, it's impossible to hide behind. sophisticated sales threats is open within an offshore trust. critics, a wondering whether it's taking the war in europe for the u. k. government to sir, is the change that oliver below joins us now. he's author of the new book butler to the world. how britton became the servant of ty coon's tax doctor, is clipped across. and criminals over thanks so much for joining us. so london is a haven for russian oligarchy. why is the city in particular so popular among oligarchs? yeah, i should say to starts, is that it's not just a haven for rational oxy savings for any oligarchs. you name them. we have them. essentially, britain. i mean, obviously anyone who's been to london knows that it has lots going for it. if you're wealthy, there's lots to buy, we have help and shops, we're schools, great universities, all of these things. but we have

a 2nd advantage that doesn't really get discussed so much, which is that though your wealth is very secure here is protected by the british british legal system by the british police. it's not going to be investigated by the british legal system either. so it isn't just a great place to spend money. it's also a really great place to keep money and you can keep it here forever. now this oligarchy are becoming the target of western sanctions. are those sanctions working? huh. i suppose it depends what it means to say, are they working? you know, i'm not quite sure that everyone is in agreement about what the target, the aim of the sanctions. is. some people say that the hope is that by sanctioning oligarchs and costing the money, they will then come to put pressure on putin. the man who has made them so much money because they've got ritual got richer during his time in office. other people say that the oligarchy are essentially extensions of the russian state. so freeze by freezing them under you more or less just freezing russian state money. i think

both of those arguments suggest that what we're trying to do is trying to find policy leave is allow, is to put pressure, if not imputed himself, then on the people around him by depriving them of all the toys, the billing, the luxury goods to football clubs and you know, i think it's too early to say if they'll work, but i think it's probably worth a shot. it's better than most of the other alternative options. we've got a 2nd quote and himself. we know his personal wealth is very well hidden. how can sanctions effect will effectively target hen if at all putin? i know sure you make sense to talk about putin being wealthy. i think if rusher is your current account, you don't really need a deposit account. i don't think if he has of shoe a wealth anywhere, then, you know, it's probably not very much in comparison to the other oligarchs. the other oligarchs have huge offshore wealth. you know, that's half of all the wealth owned by russians is owned of fuel. by oligarchs. if these oligarchy, you know, want to get back to those, because she life styles,

what do they need to do? what needs to happen or has the world's relationship with russian oligarchy really changed forever. i'd be surprised my relationship with russian. all the dogs had changed forever. western countries, britain in particular, but only britain i've been historically very welcome to work to bring it anyone with money. however, we need to recognize that, that as long as this crisis last that will be sanctions on russia, and it will be much harder for oligarchy to come here and spend that money. so i suppose the answer is what western positions? one the answer to b, which is if you want to come back and enjoy your blame in our capital cities, you're going to have to tell you to stop killing ukrainians. and that is the challenge. how many of these are gonna have that kind of influence anymore? how many of them could just walk into peyton and ask him for a favor like stop inviting you cried. i don't think any of them do. so i think we're going to have to get used to a world for a while, at least while this crisis lasts. when the russian orthodox, i'm no longer going to be splashing the cache in bars and villas of south of france

or me, you know, dimensions of london or in the islands of greece with the car been allen fuller. thank you so much for joining us. as my pleasure, thank you for having me and it's not just the u. k. u. s. and e. u. switzerland has taken the unprecedented step of imposing sanctions against russia. well, the measures have a big impact on oligarchy, former swiss banker and wiki leaks. whistleblower rudolph. elmer says he has serious doubts to re she's one of the world's most expensive places and that's in no small part due to russian oligarchy. happy to invest their money here. rudolph, elma, used to be a tough banker at the venerable. it's very spank you leo spare. today he is a critic of these financial institutions who came to international prominence as a wiki leaks whistleblower in this right. on the lake, while a lot of money is invested in switzerland because banking secrecy protects the

oligarchs. we have a strict secrecy law. guy halted because it's the government politicians and the judiciary support this because it is a huge source of income for this with a date for you, then try to stop rushes, brutal war against ukraine has put world wide pressure on switzerland to respond. it's likely one of the reasons why the government here has back the sanctions saying russian oligarchy should no longer be able to access their assets here. but elmer is skeptical until we'll leave a hot me to which linda was slow to introduce sanctions. and that keep the older ex, plenty of time to shift their fortune somewhere else, concealing the origin of money as a long tradition in switzerland homes pocket the can for this means that the actual owner is disguised via trusts in the cayman islands or companies or whatever in such a way that you don't really know who's behind on the spice very quickly. the swiss bankers association rejects this accusation, saying the sanctions would be strictly observed to which day it's important to

understand that these sanctions obliged banks to report russian customers to the forty's is what i did. the banking secrecy is never absolute. it can be effected by a legal obligation to provide information, and that is also the case with the sanction. se concrete, you buy these in some to own small salmon after fall rushes gas from bank and spare bank. seen here in serious are exempt from the sanctions that allows you countries like germany to still be able to buy russian oil and gas through them. but public criticism is growing. spare bank in theory has covered over its logo and lowered window blinds for fear of protests. the swiss n g o public eye has long criticized the russian banks. and now it says they're playing a critical role in moscow's war. is not to this, this is of course a substantial part of bloody amir puting, this war chest cooking. he calculated it that way from the start. how could you and

also anticipated that this money, at least, would continue to flow. we're talking about a $1000000000.00 a day, 80 percent of which comes from swiss commodities trading platforms. one of the data centers for the swift bank payment system is very close to 0. it's currently under a heavy guard for fear of russian sabotage. but elma doesn't think our complete russian cut off from swift would be that dramatic for russia is give received an american sky. there are various ways of getting around this, like inter company deal. the banks holding bank accounts with other banks and trade shortcuts as well as barter transactions house because there are many variants and you have to see that this payment transaction business has become even more lucrative all day due to the sanctions of course, to suck dylan. oh doth elma now lives in seclusion near zer ish, but he hasn't stop criticizing switzerland's financial institutions under forty's. he's demanding strict laws for better monitoring of the financial center,

but so far says he see no willingness in the government to take action. and that's all from me and the business team here in berlin. thanks for watching st. next time with what's making the headlines and what's behind van d. w. news africa. the show, the best policy issues have been the continent. life is slowly getting back to normal here on the streets to give you enough reports on the inside. our correspond that was on the ground reporting from across the continent, all the trend stuff, the mazda you next on d, w, cutting off the money. the russian only got as many of you to hold to close times

to flood your proteins, have long pocked their angleton families outside their own country. now russia's war in ukraine has government through their lack throws on for investment. why sanction? honda financial sector might be the strongest weapon in the fight against the russian regime. a business special in 60 minutes on d, w o. and they've had no peace for for decades. the people of iraq country is devastated and there's no end to the a. how did it come to this key eyewitnesses review an unprecedented story

with no more than life of the great documentary series iraq destruction of a nation this week on d. w. ah, this is d w as africa coming up on the program lives on hold the african students facing an uncertain future as the war in ukraine. rage is on. so we're trying to see it in the shots field. so weeks that we have which school is going to accept those because we can't even get our trust credits because of what is happening. we don't have our trust people. they don't seem to understand that we don't love tribes creek. thousands of african students have finally escaped to safety. some have made it back to their home countries, but all those and now stuck in europe.