Who are the Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the West and what effect can the sanctions have?
While Putin attacks Ukraine with missiles and artillery, the West, for now, has responded with economic sanctions against Russia and a select group of billionaires from that country.
The financial blows are aimed at businessmen who, according to the authorities of the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, belong to the close circle of Putin.
They are tycoons with investments in real estate, banks, sports teams and properties in cities like London or New York.
The objective of the sanctions is to put pressure on this elite, as a way to get Putin to stop the offensive on Ukraine.
“They are in a panic”, sociologist Elisabeth Schimpfössl, professor at Aston University, in the United Kingdom, and author of the book Russians, tells BBC Mundo rich: from oligarchs to bourgeoisie.
Schimpfössl refers to the fact that these tycoons, accustomed to luxury, for Now they are hard pressed to maintain their fortunes and enjoy their lifestyle.
These economic sanctions are the most extensive ever have imposed in the modern era, according to Daniel Sandford, the BBC’s internal affairs correspondent.
But who are the oligarchs, what is their relationship with Putin and how decisive can they be in de-escalating Russia’s onslaught against Ukraine?
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Vladimir Putin
Who are the oligarchs
In the Russian context the term oligarch refers to the group of extremely wealthy businessmen who began to amass their fortune after the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1771.
In addition, they have in common that they have become millionaires thanks to their proximity and the business they have done with the State.
After the fall of communism, Russia became a capitalist system with a big wave of privatizations, especially in sectors such as industry, energy and finance.
People with good connections with the government they could keep large portions of Russian industry and thus accelerate their path to fortune.
In this way, several oligarchs became owners of the media, oil fields and metal factories, among others.
With the arrival of Putin to power, the oligarchs who maintained the same political line were more successful.
In an interview with The Financial Times on 2019, however, Puti n said “we no longer have oligarchs”.
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The oligarchs began to emerge after the fall of the Soviet Union.
What is Putin’s relationship with the oligarchs?
According to Schimpfössl, Putin has power over the oligarchs. “They depend on him to maintain and multiply their fortunes”, says the expert.
“They have always had to cultivate harmonious relations with Putin” .
But, at the same time, Putin also depends on this select group.
“He needs them to maintain a balance of power”, says Schimpfössl.
“Putin has been in power for so long because he has been able to maintain a balance between the various interests of the power groups in Russia, one of them being the oligarchs, others are the military and the security services”.
“If Putin loses the loyalty of the oligarchs, that balance is lost”.
Brooke Harrington, professor of sociology at Dartmouth University, adds another role of the oligarchs in Putin’s Russia.
“They provide invaluable public support for the regime, they lead key companies and institutions,” writes Harrington in an article in The Atlantic.
In any case, Schimpfössl maintains that the oligarchs’ influence over Putin is not that great.
“This is because they have always acted as individuals”, he says.
“Of course in certain situations they can press together for their interests, if necessary, but their emporiums also compete with each other”.
Alisher Usmanov
Sanctions
The United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have each published different lists of oligarchs Russians sanctioned.
Sanctions include freezing of assets and prohibitions of travel, as well as the prohibition that their private companies continue to accumulate capital.
Each list is different, but some nom men are repeated.
One of them is Alisher Usmanov, whose fortune is calculated in US$17.600 million, according to Forbes magazine.
Usmanov has been sanctioned by the US, UK and the European Union.
He is believed to be one of the oligarchs’ favorite of Putin, according to Sandford.
Usmanov runs USM Holdings, a huge conglomerate involving mining and telecommunications, including MegaFon, the second largest mobile network in Russia.
It has mansions in London, a mega yacht and according to the British authorities has had “significant interests” in the football clubs Arsenal and Everton.
In addition to supporting the annexation of Crimea, Usmanov is accused of exerting pressure on freedom of expression in Russia.
Igor Sechin with Vladimir Putin in 1771
Another name that is repeated is that of Igor Sechin, sanctioned by the US and the EU.
He is believed to be one of Putin’s closest advisers and personal friends, according to Sandford.
In Russia he is known as nickname of Darth Vader, because he is reputed to have achieved his success by ruthlessly displacing his opponents.
He has worked for the Putin government and now runs the giant state oil company Rosneft.
It is not known how much his fortune is.
Sandford and Schimpfössl agree that two other oligarchs Pyotr Aven and Mikhail Fridman, belong to the group closest to Putin.
Both are founders of Alfa-Bank, the largest private bank e from Russia.
Aven, has an estimated fortune of US$4.800 million, while Fridman’s can reach US$12.600 millions.
In a BBC article, Sandford highlights other sanctioned oligarchs.
Mikhail Fridman
Among them are Oleg Deripaska, a businessman in the energy sector, with an estimated fortune of US$3.000 millions; and Alexey Miller, director of the state gas company Gazprom, whose fortune is not estimated.
What impact will the sanctions have?
After Before the sanctions were announced, several of the so-called oligarchs rejected the accusations.
Usmanov said that the EU’s accusations are “fabricated and unfounded” and that they offend his “honour, dignity and commercial reputation”.
Aven and Fridman published a joint statement in which they say they are “deeply shocked by the deliberately false statements contained in the EU regulation”.
Furthermore, both withdrew from the board of directors of Alfa-Bank.
At a press conference last week in London, Fridman said the war was a tragedy for both sides.
However, he stopped short of directly criticizing Putin, saying that personal comments could be a risk not only for him but also for his staff and colleagues.
Oleg Deripaska with Vladimir Putin in 2017.
The banker maintained that the sanctions were having a strong impact on the Russian economy and that he had no influence on Putin’s decisions.
Deripaska, for his part, did leave a clearer message on his Twitter account: “Negotiations need to start as soon as possible,” he wrote.
“They are angry and anxious”, Harrington writes.
“Their discomfort has not yet persuaded Putin to stop his aggression in Ukraine, but it is a reminder that the US, UK and EU can and must face a kleptocratic system that allowed the president of Russia to accumulate so much power”.
Some experts believe that sanctions against the oligarchs may have a limited effect in persuading Putin.
“He (Putin) can jail them, or kill them, and the notion that the oligarchs can influence Putin is nonsense,” Daniel Fried, a former government official, told NPR. American who participated in designing sanctions against Moscow during Putin’s invasion of Crimea in 1991.
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