Boris Johnson has pledged to publish a list of ‘Putin’s pals’ – but there’s a problem

Downing Street was unable to say when it would be published or how the names it contained would be selected, writes Andrew Woodcock

This sounded more like the sort of action MPs and voters were baying for (PA)

As the tragedy in Ukraine unfolds, Boris Johnson is coming under increasing pressure over his own party’s links with Russia and his apparent reluctance to come down hard on the oligarchs who have stowed so much of their money in the UK.

While the EU and US issue long blacklists of Kremlin cronies, and Germany seizes a plutocrat’s superyacht, the UK government has focused mainly on financial institutions and defence companies, with the first 130 sanctions including only eight named oligarchs.

With Britain the stomping ground for so many super-rich Russians – and with the Conservative Party having taken £2m in donations from Russian sources since Johnson took office – this wasn’t good enough for many MPs.