Corrupt Russian billionaire and British royalty on guestlist for dodgy UCL conference
The guest list is terrifying
A UCL society has invited billionaire businessmen, British royalty and shady Kremlin politicians to its ‘Russian Business Conference’ starting this week.
The series of talks is organised by UCL Eurasian Business Society and centres on investment banking and British-Russian trade relations.
Speakers at the flagship event include Yuri Luzhkov, the disgraced former mayor of Moscow who fled Russia after embezzling billions, and HRH Prince Michael of Kent, the controversial royal who pocketed £320,000 from close friend and corrupt oligarch Boris Berezovsky.
The all male guest list for Friday’s event also features Sergei Kalashnikov, a Kremlin politician who wrote a recent bill allowing Russians to carry rifles for self-defence.
Neil MacKinnon, an investment banker, will give a talk on his “global macro strategies” used to dodge Western sanctions on Russia.
MacKinnon works for VTB capital, a Russian government owned corporation accused of doing banking for Bashar al-Assad by American senators
UCL spokesperson Dominique Fourniol said the university doesn’t have a “no platform policy” when it comes to speakers – the last month has also seen a crazed doomsayer preaching the start of WW3 on campus.
Eurasian Business Society has 300 members and sponsors including Westminster Russia Forum, a lobby recently rebuked for backing Putin’s policy in parliament, and a private jet firm.
Friday’s conference costs £65 and will take place in the Darwin Lecture Theatre.