Don't blame the Russians
What do you think is happening in the City these days? Firms dragged down by red tape, compliance officers, legal jobsworths, Chinese walls and dawn raids by the Bank of England? I doubt it.
Banks get slaps on the wrist for accepting bin bags full of mouldy bank notes and launder billions for drugs cartels, deliberately hide the money trail and still just pay the fine. Accountancy firms audit multi-nationals every year and make millions doing it, then wash their hands when the company turns out to be a worthless shell. Lawyers will, quite legally, tell you how to game the regulations, to cheat the system and get away with it.
The banks, auditors, accountants and lawyers spend their lives bending the rules so they can make more money and someone else can take the risk.
The rewards are immense, the risks minimal, the courts incapable, the sentences pathetic.
All that Russian money was just more, easy, painless, mostly legal, profit.
Don’t blame the Russians for taking advantage of the situation. They’d be mad not to.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.