TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Prince’s Office Intervened to Get Sanctioned Russian Businessman a Visa

Maxim Viktorov was under U.S. sanctions at the time and has since been sanctioned by the U.K. too.

The office of Prince Michael of Kent, the late Queen Elizabeth’s first cousin, who has long faced controversy for his links to powerful Russian businessmen, lobbied a senior Foreign Office official in 2018 to get a fast-track U.K. visa for a Russian financier closely linked to a sanctioned oligarch, the London Times has reported in an exclusive investigation. The visa was for Maxim Viktorov, a 50-year-old businessman with links to the Putin regime, who boarded a flight to London six days after the intervention. The prince “was part owner of a U.K. finance firm that was in the process of securing £100,000 of investment from an organisation run by Viktorov,” The Times reported. Viktorov was under U.S. sanctions at the time and has since been sanctioned by the U.K. The government defended its actions as consistent with its “priority” service, telling The Times it was allowed, “where there is a clear national interest—such as to support inward investment.” Associates of Prince Michael were filmed by undercover journalists in 2021 saying he could be hired for £10,000 (about $12,700) a day to make representations to the Putin regime.