Fury over foreign aid budget being used to train Russia’s future leaders at British universities

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Rishi Sunak has been accused of aiding Vladimir Putin’s regime over the federal government’s plans to spend lots of of hundreds of kilos of taxpayers’ cash coaching up the subsequent technology of Russian leaders.

Britain barred Russians from making use of to the Chevening scholarship programme – a completely funded masters diploma aimed at “emerging leaders” from all over the world – after Mr Putin invaded Ukraine two years in the past.

But, regardless of the battle nonetheless happening – and Britain ramping up sanctions on Moscow in response to the loss of life of opposition chief Alexei Navalny – The Independent can reveal that the scheme has been reopened to candidates from Russia.

The prime minister is now going through calls to reverse the choice, with MPs and campaigners criticising the choice to use foreign aid cash on this approach. One MP stated: “It will only possibly benefit apparatchiks of Putin’s regime.”

Bill Browder, the US anti-corruption campaigner, informed The Independent it’s “highly inappropriate” to reinstate the scheme.

He stated: “While Putin is killing Ukrainians, it would be highly inappropriate for the British government to send any money to Russians, who may go back to Russia and support the war effort. A programme like this should be for citizens of countries that aren’t threatening us with nuclear war.”

The scheme sees abroad college students introduced to British universities, with flights, lodging and tuition charges all included – on the situation that they return to their house nation after commencement.

It is funded by the Foreign Office by the UK’s worldwide aid budget, and is aimed at boosting Britain’s mushy energy and relationships with international locations all over the world.

In the previous, greater than 30 scholarships in a single 12 months have gone to college students from Russia. It signifies that, from September, Britain could possibly be spending lots of of hundreds of kilos bringing Russian candidates to the UK.

Critics rounded on the federal government’s determination to reopen the scheme to Russians whereas the conflict is ongoing, with former Tory chief Sir Iain Duncan Smith denouncing it as “hopeless”.

The senior MP added: “Why are we doing this at this time? After Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine that has cost so many lives and destroyed so many towns and cities. Why would we want to do this?”

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg informed The Independent that the Foreign Office ought to “clearly continue the suspension of this scheme”. “It will only possibly benefit apparatchiks of Putin’s regime,” he added.

He referred to as for the cash to be spent on serving to these displaced by Russia’s invasion. He stated: “If this money is available, it ought to be spent helping Russian families living in exile to avoid Putin’s murderous regime.”

The Chevening scholarship programme offers research at UK universities – together with Oxford and Cambridge in addition to the University of Bristol, the University of Glasgow and Nottingham Trent – for college students with the potential to develop into future leaders, determination makers and opinion formers.

It was established in 1983 because the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Awards Scheme, and renamed in 1994 after Chevening House in Sevenoaks, Kent – the foreign secretary’s grace and favour house.

A pupil coming to London receives a stipend believed to be price round £18,500 as well as to full tuition, with a median diploma ordinarily costing abroad graduates £17,109.

With flights additionally included, every pupil may account for greater than £35,000 of expenditure, although the Foreign Office refused to disclose the quantity concerned or what number of college students can be funded this 12 months.

Foreign affairs committee member Henry Smith stated it’s “not the time” to reopen the scheme, pointing to Mr Putin’s administration “acting like a crime syndicate at home and bringing war to Europe”. He added: “Indeed, it could be argued as a potential security risk.”

Former defence minister Tobias Ellwood stated: “Given Russian sports athletes are banned from international competitions and cannot compete under the Russian flag, spending a penny on supporting Russian students is absurd.

“We can and must suspend support of Russians if they are returning to Putin.”

The Foreign Office stated Chevening permits Britain to “engage the next generation of students from across the globe with Western values and critical thinking”. A spokesperson added: “Our argument is with Putin’s regime and his illegal invasion of Ukraine. It is not with the Russian people, many of whom are increasingly suffering the consequences of this invasion.”

The spokesperson additionally pointed to an increase in home repression in Russia – with extraordinary Russians more and more unable to train their basic freedoms – as justification for the choice.

Alicia Kearns, the top of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, stated reopening the scheme is “the right thing to do”.

“Enabling Russian students, the brightest and best, to see that Putin’s ‘truths’ are anything but, and to experience a society that is open and free, is the right thing to do,” she informed The Independent.

The determination to reopen the scheme to Russians coincides with the second anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale incursion into Ukraine.

In the 2 years because the conflict erupted, greater than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and practically 20,000 injured.

Britain has additionally ramped up its sanctions on Russia over the homicide of Navalny. Days after his loss of life, the UK imposed journey bans and asset freezes on six people heading up the notoriously brutal “Polar Wolf” FKU IK-3 jail camp the place he was killed.

A Foreign Office supply informed The Independent that these returning to Russia will take again “experience of our values and society compared to theirs”.

And they stated the variety of Chevening alumni who maintain authorities, civil service and civic society roles all over the world is “large and significant”, saying it “can make a big difference diplomatically”.

The supply stated: “Clearly Russia is in a different place right now, but we have never made our absolute commitment to help Ukraine in its self defence against Putin’s illegal and brutal invasion an attack or repulsion of the Russian people.”