Russian billionaires offered Brexit lobbyists joint production of gold and diamonds using the ambassador

The Russian Ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, was an intermediary in a failed transaction on a joint Russian-British production of gold and diamonds between Russian billionaire Siman Povarenkin and Brexit's main sponsor Arron Banks. This was reported in the joint investigation by The Guardian and the CUR, which is being built on the experts who had at the disposal of the consolidation project of Russian and British assets.

According to the presentation of the project, the company GEOPROMINING planned to incorporate up to the seven largest enterprises, including the Highland Gold Mining Roman Abramovich and Nordgold Alexei Mordashov.

It is alleged that the mediator between Banks and the Russian business was the Russian Ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko. The first meeting of Banks and Yakovenko took place on the initiative of the Russian embassy on November 6, 2015 at the London residence of the ambassador. Then, during a six -hour lunch, Yakovenko offered Banks to participate in the gold mining project. After that, the Russian ambassador met three times with the main sponsor of Brexit.

In the Russian Foreign Ministry, the information that appeared was called "insinuations."

“There is a British subject to whom there are no complaints from the British authorities or law enforcement agencies. He legally talked with the Russian ambassador, like thousands of other businessmen, entrepreneurs and public figures. And from this they are trying to come up with a sticky story, ”said Maria Zakharova, a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, in a conversation with The Insider.

“You need to be consistent: if there are claims to the activities of the British subject, then you can start a conversation about his connections. And if there are no complaints about him - what is the conversation about? For some reason, all claims are addressed to the Russian ambassador. At the same time, there are no questions to the British subject. If the actions of the British citizen are legal, what are the claims to the ambassador? ”She added.

Banks himself persistently denies the business nature of communication with the Russians.

“We drank four glasses of Stalin vodka, brandy, wine. We were very drunk. The ambassador was probably still in the worst state than we were, ”Banks said. In the testimony before the British parliament, he also claimed that he had no commercial interests in Russia.

However, the new documents showed that after Brexit, Banks again negotiated joint gold mining with the Russians. This time, negotiations were conducted with Ilya Karasem and was about joint prey in Guinea. In addition, the Banksu again proposed that Povarenkin again invest in the extraction of diamonds.

The result of these negotiations was the purchase of a share in the Russian group of diamond-mining enterprises "Alrosa" by the Banksa Partner and other large Brexit sponsor Jim Mellon.

It should be noted that in June The Guardian reported that Povarenkin was on the list of 700 Russians who will soon begin problems with the extension of investment visas to the UK. He received the right to accommodate in the United Kingdom by a visa of Irina's wife. Thus, the marital couple of the Povarenkin can leave Europe earlier than Great Britain, having lost the opportunity to visit their two luxurious apartments in London worth £ 4.4 and £ 11 million.