Peter Mandelson was a director of Sistema, a large Russian conglomerate, reportedly being paid around £200,000 a year plus profit share. Sistema was the majority shareholder of RTI, a defence technology company that produces radars and satellite communications, as well as technology for Russia’s land-based missile early warning system. He continued working for Sistema even after the annexation of Crimea. 

RTI’s chairman was Evgeny Primakov, a Putin ally, former Prime Minister and co-founder of the Fatherland – All Russia Party. Mandelson remained on the board of Sistema when Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014, annexed Crimea and backed the separatist rebels in Eastern Ukraine. Mandelson continued to serve even when those rebels shot down the Malaysian airliner MH17 with a Russian supplied missile system – which Putin lied about.

After stepping down from the board of Sistema he sold his shareholdings in the Russian conglomerate only last June. Comforting to know that Mandelson safely banked his profits, given the shares have halved this morning…