Anatoly Chubais is a Russian business Oligarch, climate change ambassador and Putin advisor. He is the architect of Russia’s privatization agenda after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 90s.
Chubais quit Putin’s administration and left the country a few days ago. He was seen in Turkey drawing cash from an ATM, a thing he could not have done back home.
Roman Abramovich, former owner of London’s Chelsea Football Club and business Mogul, is another Russian oligarch. The slam on this multibillionaire who supports Putin is forcing a charity-minded clone out of himself.
Abramovich says the proceeds from the sale of the football club will go to support victims of the Ukraine invasion. Apparently, he is seeking to overturn the negative tide against his business interests.
He is even concerned about the long-term work of recovery from the war. These are veiled calculations at minimizing personal collateral financial damages resulting from the sanctions.
One Kremlin Insider and sanctioned oligarch, Gennady Timchenko, lost 4.2 billion dollars following British sanctions. He is into Oil and Gas.
Other leading oligarchs under hammer from the UK alone include:
-Oleg Deripaska with a net worth of £20 billion. He is a close Putin associate with interest in the aluminum industry and real estate. Deripaska owns an art deco property and the yacht, Clio.
-Igor Sechin, a personal friend of the Russian president and CEO of the state oil company called Rosneft -Andrey Kostin, chairman of VTB Bank – the second largest bank in Russia
-Alexei Miller, who runs Russia’s huge energy company, Gazprom -Nikolay Tokarev, president of Transneft, state-owned pipeline company that transports extracted oil and
-Dmitri Lebedev, chairman of Bank Rossiya, a bank touted to be linked to Putin.
Russian oligarchs came into prominence in 1990 following the breakup of the former Soviet Union. They made huge amounts of money in the privatization of the economy. This small group of people possess large private businesses. Economic influence and political power are in their hands to swing policies of government in their favor.
In order to hurt Putin’s execution of the Ukraine operation, they have been put under pressure.
They are believed to wield enough resources to oil the wheels of war for Putin. Measures to curtail their financial influence have been expanded to achieve this.
The UK fast-tracked assent to its Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act on Tuesday.
With this Act of Parliament, principally targeting Russian oligarchs and high-net-worth individuals, money laundering and other financial crimes can be dealt with. The UK wants to impose a 35 percent tariff on £900 million worth of goods of Russian origin.
The EU is also introducing more economic measures in line with that of the UK. Ambassadors of the EU are agreed on, but not limited to the following:
– ban on export of luxury items like cars, jewelry aimed at the big shots
– expanding the list of Russian oligarchs and top business elites to come under more sanctions and – ban on import of Steel products from Russia, which will amount to about €3.3 billion.
In the US luxury haven of New York and Florida, the oligarchs who own properties there are worried. Some are making swift deals to change ownership and cut losses.
Since the sanctions are coordinated from the EU, UK, Australia and the US, the Russians are moving beyond real estate deals to super yachts, aircrafts, assets and Investments which have come under the radar. Some movables are being taken to areas where sanctions not will not affect them.
So far, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says 370 more Russian oligarchs and members of their family have been sanctioned. These are also close to President Putin, who is yet to make a rethink of the invasion of Ukraine.
Overall, 116 billionaires have about $126 billion gone down the drain in losses according to Forbes. Of the losses, $71 billion was wiped out in a single day.
The sanction is taking its toll and the rich are getting jittery by the hour