A string of central Glasgow properties are owned by a company belonging to the head of an investment firm behind a Russian shipping hub. Researchers say the port sustains Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
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A string of central Glasgow properties are owned by a company belonging to the head of an investment firm behind a Russian shipping hub. Researchers say the port sustains Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
A Russian investment boss’s firm owns commercial property in Glasgow, raising questions about the checks made on who is able to buy Scottish assets, claims a new report.
The study, published today, highlights how Russia is exploiting weaknesses in UK and European sanctions and security controls to import military goods for the frontline, sell and export stolen commodities from occupied Ukraine, and ship oil via its ‘shadow fleet’.
The research is part of the Serious Organised Crime / Anti-Corruption Evidence project, which is funded by the UK Government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
One focus is Russia’s Kavkaz Port, which is connected to Crimea by a bridge and ferries. The report claims it is important for supplies of explosives, fuel and other goods to the war’s frontline, and for shipping pillaged grain from Moscow-occupied territories.
In 2024, the port’s main cargo terminal was acquired by RWM Capital, an investment group chaired by oligarch Sergey Orlov. A decade earlier, in 2015, RWM bought a portfolio of seven Glasgow properties on West George Street, Hope Street, and West George Lane, months after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
The property was bought for £8.7m by Tenoma Limited in Cyprus. While it still owns the properties, control of the Cypriot firm was transferred to two individuals in October 2024, according to Cypriot corporate records.
One shareholder, Feliks Blinov is RWM’s chief executive, while the other, Vlada Velogodskaya, is Orlov’s ex-wife, according to Russian news reports.
Tenoma also took on a loan for more than half of the value of the property from Russian Commercial Bank in Cyprus, which was shut down due to its Kremlin ties.
“...given RWM Capital and its CEO’s high-profile political affiliations, additional due diligence may have been warranted when the firm acquired the property in 2015 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea,” the report says.
“The ongoing ownership of the property through two associates of RWM Capital and its CEO continues to raise similar concerns.”
Jamie Mann
According to the Scottish Assessors Association, the seven properties are mostly occupied by Tenoma, while its tenants include IT, legal and consultancy firms.
The estate agent Savills is currently advertising one of the West George Street properties to let, and a title deed shows that Scottish Power took on an existing 60-year lease to house an electricity substation on the basement floor of one of buildings until 2051.
The report said the presence of the substation indicated that the property “may also be critical infrastructure”. There is no suggestion that Savills, Scottish Power or any tenants were aware of Tenoma's Russian links.
A spokesperson for Scottish Power Energy Networks said: “A secure substation has been located on this site for decades – going right back to the 1960s – and is subject to a token annual rent.”
Western sanctions’ weaknesses
The report says that despite Western sanctions and Ukrainian attacks, Russia’s trade through Black Sea ports increased every year from 2022 to 2025.
“This highlights the limitations of current sanctions policy, which has insufficiently considered the critical touchpoints of UK and European business with Russia's war-related illicit trade,” it claims. The “entanglement” between such trade and UK and European financial systems is “a mutual vulnerability”, says the report.
“EU and UK policymakers can either work to freeze, sanction and restrict these networks’ operations, or they will continue to infiltrate and undermine the security of Europe and the UK,” it adds.
RWM Capital and Savills were approached for comment. Vlada Velogodskaya and Vladimir Yakunin could not be reached.
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