Why are oligarchs so necessary in Britain? Because we love living beyond our means | Larry Elliott

Cash from overseas is used to balance the UK's massive trade deficit. The problem is not just them, it's also us

Dirty Russian money has polluted British democracy. The Conservatives have taken donations from Vladimir Putin's chums without asking enough questions about where the cash is coming from. It is time to clean up Londongrad and also to wave goodbye to a burgeoning list of sanctioned oligarchs that now includes the owner of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich.

That's all completely true but it also doesn't tell the whole story, which is that Russian money is just a part of an annual flow of foreign finance that enables us as a country to run permanent and massive trade deficits, where imports of goods and services are higher than exports. Put simply, we have been happy to take oligarch money so that we can live beyond our means. It is not just them, it is us.

Larry Elliott is the Guardian's economics editor