EU Imposes Sanctions On Russian Oligarchs Including Abramovich

With the violent war begun by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has placed punitive sanctions not only on the Russian government but also on its wealthy and influential oligarchs, with close ties to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. Among these is billionaire Roman Abramovich. Abramovich was targeted because the U.K. government’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) suspected that a steel company he had control of supplied steel to the Russian military to produce tanks. He was last seen flying into Moscow on his private jet.

Abramovich is also the owner of the Chelsea Football Club, which is one of the top football clubs in the Premier League. Currently, he is trying to sell the club as he was disqualified as club director by the Premier League board, but the U.K. government is only allowing him to do so by way of government dispensation so that he does not profit from the sale. Abramovich claims that he does not have close ties to Putin, but in 2012, former high court Welsh judge, Dame Elizabeth Gloster, stated that Abramovich had “very good relations” and “privileged access” to Putin though adding he could not “pull the presidential strings.” Numerous other sanctions have been enacted against six other Russian oligarchs suspected of having close ties to the president, by seizing their yachts and other luxury assets. Although Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire and industrialist, tweeted in February saying “Peace is very important! Negotiations must start ASAP” he was also added to the list of powerful men who had their assets frozen.

The freezing of the Russian oligarchs’ assets is meant to encourage these influential and wealthy men to use their standing to influence the happenings and outcome of the Russian invasion, and isolate the Russian economy and to bring it down in general as a consequence for their violent actions and propaganda-fueled invasion. As many of these oligarchs deny having influence over the president, it is uncertain how much of an effect this strategy will have. It is clear that because Putin was not elected democratically, it isn’t detrimental to his future to lose the favor of Russian citizens, and he has made it clear that he is not swayed by the international opinion of his leadership.

War is extremely costly, and the Center for Economic Recovery has estimated that the first five days of the war may have cost Russia as much as $7 billion in direct military costs. There are hopes that given all of the harsh economic sanctions on Russia from all over the world, the depreciation of the ruble, and the freezing of Russian elites’ assets, Russia will run out of money and won’t be able to continue with the invasion. Right now, this is looking unlikely because much of Russia’s weaponry is made domestically so the change in the value of the ruble will not affect them in that area. Russian financial officers are taking measures to save money, default on payments, and bar foreign investors from taking their money out of Russia, to lessen the economic effects of sanctions and war. Many economic experts say that if the U.S., European Union, and other nations want to punish Putin, they will have to take action to limit its oil and gas exports, an industry in which Russia earned about $63 billion from in the third quarter of 2021 according to Fortune. The U.S. has already banned all oil from Russia, and hopefully, Europe will follow suit. 

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