The success of the BBC drama McMafia will be used to raise awareness of corruption, a government minister said, as he warned that Russian oligarchs may be targeted in the latest crackdown.

Security minister Ben Wallace said the "full force of government" would be brought to bear on foreign criminals and corrupt politicians who use Britain as a haven.

Officials will use new unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) - which came into effect this week - to seize suspicious assets and hold until they have been properly accounted for.

In an interview with The Times, Mr Wallace said: "When we get to you, we will come for you, for your assets and we will make the environment that you live in difficult."

The move comes as London's role as a playground for Russian gangsters and the super rich has been highlighted by the BBC drama series McMafia.

Mr Wallace said ministers wanted to exploit the success of the programme - based on the factual book of the same name by the journalist Misha Glenny - to raise public awareness of the issue of corruption.

"McMafia is one of those things where you realise that fact is ahead of fiction," he told the paper.