Ian, we're going to do a special episode for the new series of the podcast, all about Russian

money laundering and corruption and all the accountants and lawyers who make that possible.

Is there anything you'd like to add just before we begin?

I'd just like to say, oh great, you're doing a piece about how unbelievably rich Russians

are paying the best and most expensive lawyers in London to come at people with money no object.

Oh great, great yeah terrific.

Page 94 the Private Eye Podcast

Hello and welcome back to another episode of page 94

this week we have a special episode all about dodgy Russian money making its way into the British

financial system. A few issues ago, Private Eye ran a special report entitled Looting with

Putin and that report covered all the ways in which money makes its way out of

the Russian system and into the British one. The current issue of the magazine has

also covered how little the British government is doing to stop this process, presumably on the basis that

it's better to have the money inside the system than it is not to let it in in the first place.

The author of that special report and of the latest coverage is the eyes Richard Brooks,

so we decided to set him the unenviable task of boiling down an incredibly complicated

system of shell companies and stolen cash, dodgy lawyers and the whole lot into one half an hour

podcast. He said yes, more fool him. However, we did let him set a start date and he chose the early 1990s. To explain why, here's

Richard.

If you go back to the very early 90s, following the breakup of the Soviet Union they sensed a huge commercial

opportunity. We all know there was a wave of very corrupt privatizations and

that was you know manner from heaven for a certain type of lawyer and

...