Daughter of Russian fishing company boss says she ‘doesn’t feel safe being a Russian in London’ and claims her friends have been attacked and fired from their jobs
- Russian socialite, Alina Blinova, 35, said she no longer feels safe in the capital
- The daughter of a fishing company boss claims her friends have been shunned
- She said she ‘loves London’ but also feels ‘nervous everywhere’ being Russian
A London-based daughter of a Russian fishing company boss has said she’s horrified at how her compatriots are being treated all over Europe and in the capital.
Since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, super wealthy Russian families with links to the Kremlin have been fleeing the UK to avoid being hit by sanctions from the government.
Alina Blinova, who has lived in London since 2006, said: ‘I don’t feel comfortable. I don’t feel safe being Russian in London – or anywhere.’
Daughter of a Russian fishing company boss, Alina Blinova (pictured) has said she no longer feels safe in London because of her Russian nationality
Blinova said she knows friends who have been fired or shunned recently just because they are Russian (pictured with Jonathon Ross in 2014)
Speaking to The Times, the daughter of a Russian fishing company boss added: ‘It’s really uncomfortable. If you speak Russian, you look behind your back – is anyone listening to you?
‘You keep your voice low and speak Russian on the phone later, at home. There’s this fear you have.’
The Knightsbridge resident has spent the past few month in Monaco to ‘get some sea air’, having just had a baby.
Though she plans to return to the city she regards as home soon.
The PR and events company, RuStyle, told how her friends ‘are getting fired’, being told they can’t be served and even attacked just because they are Russian.
The British passport holder herself was invited to a lunch by a wealth management company, but in the morning was told she was uninvited because the company didn’t want to be involved ‘in the Russian market’.
On a recent Instagram post of a Monégasque car with a message on the back bumper (in Russian), ‘Russian car go f*** yourself.’
She added the hashtag #StopHatingRussians.
‘Being Russian/Ukrainian is not a crime,’ she wrote.
‘Russian people you meet on a daily bases [sic] around the world didn’t kill anyone in Ukraine, didn’t hurt or plan to hurt or ‘invade’ any country. But in return… we get hate.’
A mansion in Belgrave Square was occupied by a group of squatters earlier this month, Blinova said the security London once provided wealthy Russians is now gone
London’s safe reputation and relative anonymity attracted the super-rich from Moscow.
However that is now no longer the case according to Blinova.
This month, squatters went and occupied the £50 million Belgrave Square house of Russia’s former richest man Oleg Deripaska and hung a Ukraine flag from the exterior.
‘People liked London for its security, but that’s gone,’ Blinova said.
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