A major donor to the Edward VII’s hospital is on the list of oligarchs sanctioned by the UK over Ukraine.
Image source, Mikhail Svetlov
A major financial donor of the private hospital used by the Queen, King Edward VII’s hospital, has been put on the UK list of sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
Viatcheslav Kantor, whose name is still above the door of the central London hospital, faces sanctions over Ukraine.
The hospital recently opened the Kantor Medical Centre, funded by Dr Kantor, and so far is keeping its name.
The King Edward VII’s is where the Queen has gone for medical care, including a night’s stay last autumn.
The hospital describes itself as an “independent charitable hospital with a proud history of royal patronage, discreetly located within London’s Harley Street medical district”.
Prince Philip and other members of the Royal Family have also been treated there.
‘Life governor’ of hospital
Dr Kantor has been described by the UK government as the “largest shareholder of fertilizer company Acron with vital strategic significance for the Russian government”.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: “We are showing the Russian elite that they cannot wash their hands of the atrocities committed on Putin’s orders.”
Dr Kantor had been “life governor” of the hospital but has stepped down from this role and from the board of trustees.
Image source, Jeff J Mitchell
The oligarch’s significant donations to the hospital have funded the Kantor Medical Centre, opened this year, which has seven floors of treatment and diagnostic services.
It includes new facilities for MRI and CT scans, ultrasound, X-rays and consulting rooms and will have rooms for minor procedures.
Dr Kantor, funder of the Kantor Charitable Foundation, has been a donor to many charities and arts projects in the UK.
The foundation’s online photo gallery shows him with Russian President Vladimir Putin, among other international figures.
At the outbreak of the war in Ukraine the hospital had defended the acceptance of donations from the UK-registered charity funded by Dr Kantor.
“We share the deep concern felt by people across the world at the invasion of Ukraine,” said a statement from the hospital.
Those on the sanctions list are subject to asset freezes, meaning anyone in the UK or any UK company is prevented from dealing with any funds or property that is owned by them.
Dr Kantor is among eight oligarchs who were added to the UK’s sanctions list as part of its latest package of measures in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The others included fertiliser firm founder Andrey Guryev, truck manufacturing firm director Sergey Kogogin, diamond producer Sergey Sergeyevich Ivanov, natural gas firm boss Leonid Mikhelson, Gazprombank chief executive Andrey Akimov, oil producer Gazpromneft chief executive Aleksander Dyukov, and Boris Borisovich Rotenberg – the son of the co-owner of Russia’s largest gas pipeline producer SGM.
Other sanctions include asset freezes on Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, and Credit Bank of Moscow, as well as plans to end imports of Russian coal and oil by the end of the year.
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