After 30 years of taking their money, it may be too late for the West to get Putin's oligarchs

[Nevilledog]

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Mother Jones
@MotherJones
"We’ve given them 30 years to hide their assets. And we know that the yachts are showing up in Maldives, that their aircraft are showing up in the United Arab Emirates.”

motherjones.com
After 30 years of taking their money, it may be too late for the West to get Putin's oligarchs
While Ukraine related sanctions and seizures could sting, Russia's mega rich saw this coming.
7:48 AM · Mar 4, 2022

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/03/ukraine-russia-oligarch-sanctions/

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has put the issue of international corruption front and center, sparking conversations and regulatory changes that policymakers in Washington and European capitals had put aside for decades. But unless the Biden administration and its European allies act fast, the chance to punish Russian oligarchs and others close to Putin could slip away—in some cases, quite literally, as mega-yachts leave their berths and private jets take flight to more oligarch-friendly environs.

“We have this image that the U.S. government and the U.K. government know exactly where these assets are… but we don’t.”

Financial sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe have already hit Russia hard. The country’s markets are in free-fall and western businesses have cut ties with Russian counterparts, largely isolating Vladimir Putin’s regime financially. The decision last week by the Biden administration and a number of European governments to target Putin-linked oligarchs, on its own, represents something of a sea change—even if it may be coming too late.

“When you have the president of the second largest nuclear arsenal in the world saber rattling, I think even those who don’t follow the news closely can make the connection that, ‘Oh my god, there is a real national security risk to let them infiltrate our financial system,’” says Casey Michel, an investigative journalist and adjunct researcher at the Hudson Institute who has written extensively about kleptocrats. “I don’t think this genie is going back in the bottle anytime soon.”

The new era came into stark relief on Wednesday, when German authorities seized Dilbar, a 512-foot yacht owned by Putin-ally Alisher Usmanov, a metal and mining magnate.

*snip*

[Tetrachloride]

1. I disagree with the pessimism of MJ. The oligarchs can be entirely shut down.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. ( not always true but good enough for me today)

[Nevilledog]

2. Even if we can't seize them, we are greatly limiting where they can go.

Making then pariahs is definitely something.

[Tetrachloride]

3. I likely live within 20 miles of multiple compounds or yachts

of the targeted oligarchs.

Potent irony

[L. Coyote]

4. Russian birth tourism, oligarchs' last month of pregnancy, creates citizens with assets.

This is a component of placing assets securely in the US, create a US citizen by delivering a child in the USA.

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[PortTack]

5. This needs to stop!!

[L. Coyote]

6. And you know who else profits?

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[Doc Sportello]

7. I think impounded is a better description than seized

The media keeps using seized but impounded will probably prove to be more accurate. I bet the majority of these yachts and other properties are eventually returned. It would be great if they were sold off for the benefit of the Ukranian people but how often are the wealthiest of the elites made to pay a price in the long run.