Experts say the sanctions on oligarchs announced by President Joe Biden this week in response to the invasion of Ukraine may do little to dim the jet-setting lifestyles of Russia’s ultra-rich — much less force a withdrawal of tanks and troops.
But much of the wealth of Russia’s richest isn’t held in the sanctioned Russian banks. Putin and the oligarchs aligned with him have had decades to stash assets overseas, much of it hidden in ways specifically designed to avoid sanctions.
Some oligarchs have also obtained dual citizenship in Britain and other Western countries, adding legal complications to attempts to unilaterally seize their assets. Usmanov recently sold his stake in the British soccer club Arsenal for a reported $700 million and, according to Forbes, owns two sprawling estates in London – the Beechwood House and Sutton Place –worth a combined $300 million. Usmanov’s superyacht, Dilbar, measures 512 feet from bow to stern, even longer than Abramovich’s.
“He owns them absolutely. He crushed them and they exist only by his sufferance,” said Fried. “He can jail them, or kill them, and the notion that the oligarchs can assert influence over Putin is foolish.” Boris Berezovsky, a mathematician turned Mercedes dealer who amassed a fortune by acquiring the country’s main television channel at the end of the Soviet era, was tried in absentia on charged of fraud and embezzlement after fleeing to London in 2000.
But, the experts said, the sanctions announced this week will cause pain and eventually force the Kremlin to make hard budgetary choices by weakening the Russian economy.
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