A Tayside blogger who was sanctioned by the UK Government for pro-Russia activities in Ukraine has been granted asylum by Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Ex-Dundee University student Graham Phillips was filmed being given his official state documents this week.
Mr Phillips, a former Perth High School pupil, looks delighted as he explains his gratitude in Russian next to a framed portrait of President Putin.
In the one-minute clip posted by the Russian Embassy in the UK, a uniformed official hands him his papers and he is filmed signing a document.
The office bears a Russian flag and insignia on the wall.
The Russian Embassy said he had been sanctioned for “telling the truth” about the “crimes” of the Ukrainian government in the eastern Donbas region, invaded and occupied by Putin’s forces.
Offering their congratulations, the embassy posted on social media: “He was thus left in legal limbo, cut off from his funds in Britain and effectively prevented from travelling to his home country that he never wanted to abandon in the first place.
“Now, Graham Phillips can persevere in his brave journalistic mission without feeling almost stateless. We wish him the best of luck in this noble endeavour.”
Mr Phillips was sanctioned in 2022 along with Russian oligarchs including former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich and people with terror links.
His YouTube videos from war-torn eastern Ukraine provoked fury in Britain.
He appealed his sanction at the time, which he branded illegal and dangerous.
The UK Government said he produces media content that supports and promotes policies which destabilise Ukraine and threatens the country’s independence.
In April 2022, he was slated for posting a video interview with British prisoner of war Aiden Aslin who surrendered during fighting.
Mr Phillips has also received medals from the Russian state for his efforts there.
The UK Government was contacted for comment.
Who is Graham Phillips?
Mr Phillips was born in Nottingham but spent some of his childhood in Perth. He moved to London shortly after he graduated from Dundee University, working for the now-defunct Central Office of Information.
According to interviews, Phillips first travelled to Ukraine in 2009 to watch England play football before moving to the country in 2010.
He started a relatively obscure blog, Brit in Ukraine, which he used to write about politics and sex tourism.
Asked about his work previously, he said: ““I’m not a Putin agent – I’m simply an independent journalist.”
Conversation