18 TIME April 11/April 18, 2022
systems, prompting tags like “London-
grad” and, Chichvarkin’s personal fa-
vorite, “Moscow on Thames.”
According to a 2022 report from
Transparency International, Russians
with Kremlin links or who have been
accused of corruption own at least
$1.9 billion of British real estate. The
U.K. parliamentary intelligence com-
mittee has dubbed London a “laundro-
mat” for dirty Russian money.
Following Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine, British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson declared, “We must go after
the oligarchs.” His government has
sanctioned more than 1,000 individu-
als and businesses linked to Russia.
When it comes to support for
Ukraine, Chichvarkin goes further
than U.S. or E.U. leaders: he advocates
for “immediately” sending NATO sol-
diers and enforcing a no-ly zone, as
President Volodymyr Zelensky has
repeatedly requested. But he says the
punitive economic measures targeting
supposed Kremlin allies are so broad as
to amount to “discrimination.”
“It’s a dirty game,” he says. “Javelin
missiles and NATO troops can end the
war. Not seizing a yacht in Monaco.
That will only help a particular politi-
cian get re-elected.”BRITAIN’S PROSTITUTION of itself
for Russian billions has deep roots.
Following World War II, the U.K.
was verging on bankruptcy until the
City of London began cozying up to
the Soviet Union, which didn’t want
to keep dollar reserves in American
banks so instead chose British. These
banks, in turn, began lending those
“ eurodollars” to one another in an un-
regulated market, which eventually
spawned today’s opaque ofshore i-
nance system. London boomed.
More recently, rich kleptocrats —
lured by top-notch schools, a
plaintif-friendly defamation sys-
tem, and so-called golden visas that
allow applicants who invest £2 million
in the U.K. to gain residency—have
parked their private jets on British run-
ways. Chichvarkin enjoys the luxuri-
ous fruits of London living as much
as any of them, even crossing mallets
with princes William and Harry on the
polo circuit. He describes the RussianEVGENY CHICHVARKIN IS LOOKING AGITATED.
He’s just heard a whisper about some potential
stock going cheap and so politely declines my
suggestion we leave his bustling wineshop in
London’s tony Mayfair district in search of some-
where quieter to chat.
But Chichvarkin isn’t dashing of in pursuit of
another 1774 Jura vin jaune, which sells for a pre-
cise £72,553.80 ($95,308) at Hedonism Wines,
the store he set up in 2012 to be “the world’s best
wineshop.” Instead, he is preparing to inspect a
consignment of military fatigues and battle wear
at a warehouse in the nearby town of Slough—
worth some $650,000, he tells me conspiratori-
ally. “It belongs to a rich Russian who had his as-
sets frozen and needs to sell. If it works out, I’ll
send it straight to the Ukrainian army.”
Chichvarkin isn’t your typical wine merchant.
With his Salvador Dalí mustache, billowing pan-
taloons, gold tooth earring, and pink leather win-
kle pickers, the very idea of typical seems anath-
ema to the 47-year-old entrepreneur, who has
lived in London since leeing his native Russia
face down in the back of a car in 2008.
Chichvarkin was born in St. Petersburg,
back when it was still Leningrad. He rose to be-
come one of his nation’s youngest billionaires,
by founding cell-phone retailer Evroset in 1997,
which swelled to 5,000 stores by 2007. But he
fell afoul of local oicials who accused Chichvar-
kin of kidnapping and extortion—charges he has
always called bogus. Chichvarkin and his busi-
ness partner sold Evroset for a reported cut-price
$400 million, and after successfully ighting ex-
tradition proceedings, he now lives in exile. In
London, he has enjoyed a coda as businessman,
restaurateur, and thorn in the side of Russian
President Vladimir Putin, supporting democratic
causes in Russia and its periphery by funding op-
position parties and issuing scathing critiques.
“Russians are not Putin,” he says, ixing me
with piercing blue eyes. “He doesn’t represent us.
We didn’t elect him. We don’t support him.”
Chichvarkin is a lamboyant, iconoclastic ex-
ample of the Russian wealth that has looded into
Britain over the past two decades. The deluge of
illicit cash scrubbed clean in the City of London
has led to allegations that Putin’s cronies have
penetrated Britain’s political, economic, and legal
Privileged
upbringingYoung moneyLiberal leaningsGlobal gourmandRussian businessman
Evgeny Chichvarkin
on how London
became Londongrad
BY CHARLIE CAMPBELL
THE BRIEF TIME WITH