UK eyeing £4 million property of Lavrov relation

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Britain's government said it might seize a flat owned by a relative of Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as the UK is set to ramp up its sanctions against Russia next week.

The Economic Crime Bill, which is currently being fast-tracked into law, effectively lowers the bar for the government to slap people with no clear sources of wealth with "unexplained wealth orders."

The UK government said such people could include the daughter of Lavrov's alleged longtime mistress. The Russian Foreign Minister has been personally sanctioned by the UK alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The United Kingdom's land registry database lists Polina Kovaleva, the daughter of Lavrov's lover, as the owner of a £4.4 million apartment in the wealthy neighborhood of Kensington in London.

One UK investigator said that Kovaleva's only source of money seems to be her mother, who is an actress and restaurateur.

The US and UK governments are sanctioning individuals related to Russia and not just entities. 

Earlier in the week, the US justice department stated that a New York federal court charged the head of the Russian Community Coordinating Council (RCCC) in the US, Elena Bransondual, a US-Russian national, with allegedly acting as an illegal foreign agent of Russia without registering with the US government, which the RCCC head slammed as "absurd". 

She said that she had been actively involved with the Russian community in the United States over the past 10 years and had partaken in various projects to preserve the Russian language and the cultural and historical heritage of Russian Americans, as well as strengthening humanitarian ties and dialogue between citizens of the two countries.

"My public activities were open, transparent, and non-political, and information about all ongoing events was published on websites and social networks," she added.

She affirmed that the US charges have been imposed as part of a campaign against Russia.