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Cameron: Punish Russia’s shoppers!

Cate Gillon/Getty Images This is a couple of days old but I’m really surprised that British Conservative Party leader David Cameron hasn’t gotten more flack for this idea: Russia’s elite value their ties to Europe – their shopping and their luxury weekends. We should look at the visa regime for Russian citizens. Russian armies can’t ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
593140_080819_chanel5.jpg
593140_080819_chanel5.jpg

Cate Gillon/Getty Images

Cate Gillon/Getty Images

This is a couple of days old but I’m really surprised that British Conservative Party leader David Cameron hasn’t gotten more flack for this idea:

Russia’s elite value their ties to Europe – their shopping and their luxury weekends. We should look at the visa regime for Russian citizens. Russian armies can’t march into other countries while Russian shoppers carry on marching into Selfridges.

First of all, I’d like to hear aspiring prime minister Cameron explain to the owners of Selfridges — not to mention London club owners looking for someone willing to buy cocktails flecked with flakes of 24-carat edible gold — why they’re being punished for Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy. Also, wouldn’t it actually help Russia’s economy to make jet-setting noviy russkiy spend their hard-earned petrorubles in St. Petersburg instead of Soho?

 

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

Tags: Britain, Russia

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