UK company set up in name of top Putin official in Ukraine

theguardian.com:

A UK company has been set up in the name of one of Vladimir Putin’s top officials in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine despite him being under sanctions.

Volodymyr Saldo, a notorious puppet of the Kremlin in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, is listed as the owner of a UK company registered in November, five months after his name was added to the sanctions list.

The UK government has made economic pressure a central part of its attempts to undermine Putin’s war in Ukraine. But more than a year after the invasion, proposals that would make it a crime for people under sanctions to set up UK companies have yet to become law.

In June 2022 the government imposed a freeze on any UK assets Saldo owns and banned him from entering the country. British officials accuse him of “promoting policies and actions which destabilise Ukraine and undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence of Ukraine”.

Yet since November he has been listed as the proprietor of a British company with an address in the Hatton Garden district of central London.

Companies House, the UK corporate registry, does not require proof of identity when people form companies. Saldo did not respond to questions about his involvement in the company, Grainholding Ltd.

But his entry on the sanctions list has been updated since Grainholding was registered, to draw in details from the company’s incorporation documents, suggesting that the UK authorities were aware of its existence and regarded the paperwork as genuine.

A government spokesperson declined to say whether any action had been taken against Grainholding, which remains listed as an active company. “We do not comment on individual cases,” he said.

Margaret Hodge, a Labour MP pushing to