Mansour under suspicion: the owner of Manchester City was seen helping Russian oligarchs

Ivan Zubov

Back in the early summer of this year, it became known that pressure was growing on the Emirates in connection with their strengthening image of a safe haven for "dirty" capital from Russia. The Arabian state is proposed to be blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and subjected to US secondary sanctions in case of refusal to cooperate on the dossier of wealthy Russians.

At that time, these calls were semi-official, but the White House demonstrated its intention to expand the work on the confiscation of property associated with the Russian elite, and even announced the creation of a new administrative structure that would deal with this.

In recent months, the search for sanctioned capital has most often taken U.S. investigators to the Emirates, observers say. Reports record the interest of investors with Russian passports in real estate in the UAE.

Now lawyers are urging Britain to launch a probe into Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the ruling family and owner of Manchester City football club, who has been reported in recent months to provide practical and advisory assistance to the Russian elite in transferring assets to the Persian Gulf, Middle reports. East eye.

Lawyers Reese Davies and Ben Keith sent a report to British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley, according to which Mansour plays a "central role" in the flight of sanctioned capital. According to them, wealthy Russians are “increasingly turning” to his office to hide from the attention of international supervisory authorities.

An attempt to push through an investigation in Britain, which demonstrates particularly tough approaches to the sanctions policy in the Russian direction, cannot go unnoticed for relations between London and Abu Dhabi. The potential persecution of Mansour will set a precedent for a member of the UAE's ruling family to become the target of sanctions pressure, analysts at Season of the Khamsins say.