Russia sanctions useless?
Why oligarch punishments against Putin didn't work
Created: 07/12/2022, 17:47
By: Patrick Freiwah
Burning ruble bills in front of the Russian flag: the oligarchs' tactics used by the West with regard to sanctions appear to have failed.
© IlluPics/Imago
Raise oligarchs against Russia's ruler Vladimir Putin?
The Western project in the Ukraine conflict seems to have failed.
A Polish newspaper explains why.
Warsaw/Moscow - The West has been imposing economic sanctions on Russia since the start of the Ukraine conflict.
These also target the assets of the Russian oligarchs.
The plan?
Raise the very rich Russians against the policies of President Vladimir Putin and persuade the head of state to end the military offensive in the neighboring country.
The Polish newspaper
Gazeta Wyborcza
came to a devastating verdict on the Western sanctions policy: “The West has rather clumsily tracked down the fortunes of Russian oligarchs - in the hope of turning them against Putin and influencing the course of the war in Ukraine.
The super-rich lost their influence on politics much earlier than their yachts and palaces on the Côte d'Azur.”
Ukraine: Despite sanctions, Putin's Russia continues the offensive
Undeterred, Russia is sticking to its strategy in July 2022 and is able to record land gains in the separatist areas of Ukraine, possibly with the aim of a new version of the Soviet Union.
While the oil and gas sanctions in countries like Germany are unmistakably creating uncertainty and associated turbulence, little is known of similar effects in Russia.
So how effective can the measures taken against high-ranking politicians and other supposedly influential people be rated?
As the Polish newspaper explains, there are no longer any oligarchs in Russia - that is, chosen ones who have impressive wealth and enormous influence in politics.
"This was the case in the days of Boris Yeltsin or the early years of Putin's rule, when the Kremlin was influenced by the likes of Boris Berezovsky, Oleg Deripaska and Mikhail Khodorkovsky."
Since the start of the Russian offensive, the European Union has frozen almost 14 billion euros in Russian assets:
Russia: Oligarchs have apparently lost political influence
However, the political influence of very rich people is not only an important issue in Russia: in many countries around the world there are influential financiers and powerful lobbies who influence political decisions despite democratic structures.
In Germany, the lobby register has been intended to make such incidents more transparent since the beginning of 2022.
When it comes to Russia,
Gazeta Wyborcza
makes the following assessment:
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“Today, every secret service general is more important than a 'money bag', as the super-rich are maliciously called in Moscow.
One could argue that they themselves are to blame.
Because when they were still important, they failed to take care of what could have consolidated their power: They did nothing to guarantee Russia, for example, the independence of the judiciary, freedom of the media and a democratic parliament.”
The Ukraine War in Pictures - Destruction, Resistance and Hope
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Vladimir Putin has been expanding his power in Russia for years.
One party is now demanding that the president be referred to only as "ruler".
(PF with dpa)