Has Lord Barker really resigned from the sanctioned oligarch’s $4 million-a-year employ? The Sunday Times reported that under a restructuring plan, he aims to carve out from the London and Moscow listed EN+, the subsidary Rusal’s other operations, in Europe, Australia and Africa, into a separate company, which would have no Russian owners, control or management. This would supposedly circumvent sanctions by de-Russifying the firm.

Lord Barker took a leave of absence from the Lords in 2015 when he went into Deripaska’s employ. Before he embraced Russian oligarchs, Barker’s first claim to fame was that he went with David Cameron to hug a husky back in 2006..