UK Conservative Party Advisor Lobbied for Firm Founded by Russian Oligarchs

Mark Fullbrook set up a lobbying firm following his stint with Truss, whose term as prime minister lasted 49 days in September and October 2022. 

Since last year, Fullbrook Strategies has been working for the London-based investment group LetterOne, according to a company spokesperson and documents filed with the U.K. lobbying registry.

LetterOne’s founders, Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, were both sanctioned by the U.K. on March 15, 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine the previous month. Truss was foreign secretary at the time, and announced the sanctions.  

The U.K. sanctions authority called Aven a “pro-Kremlin oligarch,” and noted his directorship of Alfa-Bank, Russia’s fourth-largest financial institution. Fridman was sanctioned for his involvement in Alfa-Bank and its related companies.

Aven and Fridman together own just under 50 percent of LetterOne, although the company itself is not sanctioned, and they don’t receive any profits.  

“They cannot exert any control or influence over the business. Their shares and their voting rights are frozen, and they cannot receive dividends,” LetterOne spokesperson Joshua Hardie said in an email.

He added that auditors have ensured that Aven and Fridman have no involvement in company affairs and derive no benefit, as have regulators in the U.K., U.S., and Luxembourg, where LetterOne Holdings S.A. is registered.

“This is the very reason why L1 is not sanctioned,” Hardie said.

According to documents filed with the U.K. lobbying registry, Fullbrook has worked with LTS Advisory Ltd, a LetterOne subsidiary, since October 2023.

Fullbrook Strategies did not respond to a request for comment, and Hardie did not say what work the lobby group might have done with LTS Advisory.

Hardie said Fullbrook worked on a “short” project with LetterOne in 2023, adding that “this year they have only provided a news clipping service for us and there are no plans to change that.”

Hardie declined to describe the 2023 project, and said he didn’t know why Fullbrook would still be registered as a lobbyist even though he is not required to do so simply for providing news clippings.

“As to why Fullbrook Strategies are still registered as lobbying for us, I cannot comment,” Hardie said.

LetterOne has about 120,000 employees and a portfolio that includes the U.K. health food chain Holland & Barrett, as well as a stake in Veon, a Netherlands-based telecommunications group. 

Earlier this month, LetterOne acquired 15 percent of Harbour Energy PLC, the North Sea's biggest oil producer. The move sparked controversy for Britain’s Labour government, with critics objecting to oligarchs owning such a valuable national asset.

The head of LetterOne is Lord Mervyn Davies, a former British Labour Party trade minister who took control after Fridman and Aven stepped down from the board of directors following Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

Britain’s Conservative Party has also come under fire for its ties to LetterOne. 

In November, the Mirror reported that Conservative member of parliament Brandon Lewis was “raking in £250,000-a-year by moonlighting for a firm part-owned by two sanctioned Russian oligarchs.” Lewis chairs LetterOne’s advisory board.

Fullbrook himself is a veteran of British politics. As a partner in the lobbying firm CT Group, he advised Conservative prime ministers Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Boris Johnson, before running Liz Truss’s successful leadership campaign in 2022.

“We need to slam shut the revolving door between our politics and the lobbying industry,” said Labour MP Joe Powell, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on Anti-Corruption & Responsible Tax.

"We in the U.K. need to take a cold hard look at ourselves,” he said.