Vladimir Ashurkov

In 2014, a panel of the Investigative Committee of Russia accused Ashurkov of embezzling funds from Alexei Navalny's 2013 Moscow mayoral campaign, after which he sought and was granted political asylum in the UK, claiming the allegations were politically motivated. Both Ashurkov and Navalny claim that the allegations are unfounded.

After relocating, Ashurkov organised bus tours for activists and journalists, similar to Roman Gul's "Kleptocrats Tour", "to show the tsarist opulence of the Russian oligarchy in London." He does this, says Ashurkov, according to the Stuttgarter Zeitung, to alert the British authorities to dirty money, as for example in Witanhurst owned by Andrey Guryev. Ashurkov advises the British government to dispense with the "dirty money", even though, according to Benjamin Plackett of Stuttgarter Zeitung, the "intertwining of Russian wealth with the British economy" complicates the policy.

Background

• Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
• Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania