UK Lobbyists for “Hostile States” Will Need to Register Under New Legislation

UK media is report­ing that lob­by­ists rep­re­sent­ing “hos­tile states” such as Rus­sia in Chi­na will be forced to pub­licly reg­is­ter under new laws to be intro­duced. Accord­ing to The Times report:

Lob­by­ists rep­re­sent­ing hos­tile states such as Rus­sia and Chi­na will be forced to reg­is­ter under new laws set to be intro­duced by min­is­ters. Those work­ing on behalf of for­eign states will have to iden­ti­fy them­selves pub­licly and risk pros­e­cu­tion if they fail to do so. The mea­sures are intend­ed to deter PR com­pa­nies and legal firms from rep­re­sent­ing for­eign coun­tries that may be intent on harm­ing British inter­ests. The move is part of a wider clam­p­down on the “Lon­don laun­dro­mat” — in which mon­ey from ques­tion­able sources is invest­ed in prop­er­ty and oth­er legit­i­mate assets whose own­er­ship remains obscure — after the Russ­ian inva­sion of Ukraine.

Read the rest here.

In late Feb­ru­ary, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed that due to Rus­si­a’s inva­sion of Ukraine, many US lob­by­ing firms were rush­ing to cut ties with their Russ­ian clients.