The West is hitting false targets, trying to influence the owner of the Kremlin, taking away their property from businessmen close to the Kremlin.
Vladimir Putin is not interested in the fate of the Russian oligarchs, because the arrests of yachts, the freezing of accounts and other sanctions will not have the desired effect on the President of the Russian Federation, reports the Chronicle.info with reference to UNIAN.
Eileen O’Connor, a former reporter for ABC and CNN, who also worked as a lawyer in Russia and Ukraine, expressed this opinion in a column for the New York Times.
«In 1996, when I was head of the Moscow bureau of CNN, there was a struggle between a group of corrupt oligarchs and cronies of President Boris Yeltsin's bodyguard, who demanded more money from them for a political «roof» and threatened to disrupt scheduled elections.
I asked Anatoly Chubais, who was then Deputy Prime Minister, the question that seemed to be the main one in the struggle: what is more important for Russians — power or money? He replied: «If you are asking this question, you do not understand Russia». The correct answer is — power.
As Putin faces the biggest test of his 22 years in office, sandwiched between Ukrainian resistance and tightening sanctions on oligarchs, oil and technology transfer, the answer remains the same throughout Russian history.
Many in the West hope for Putin's overthrow. They do not understand either Russia or the attitude of people in Russia to power.
Russian scholars have long noted that the lack of private property rights and impartial judiciary results in state actors holding the power that determines the lives of Russians in every way. Outside its borders, since the 15th century, Russia has shown its power through military aggression. In a country where power is almost everything, sanctions and lost fortunes alone will not change this fundamental principle.
Putin only cares about one thing, and it's not the oligarchs
Putin's speech in early March proves this and illustrates what he and many in Russia see as the purpose of the war: to protect Russian territory and sovereignty from Western domination. For too long, he says, the West has ignored Russia and denied it superpower status.
In Western capitalist democracies, wealth is often equated with access and influence. Therefore, it is not surprising that many believe that sanctions against the oligarchs may encourage them to pressure Putin to change course.
This is a miscalculation. The oligarchs may have wealth that binds them to power and can be used by Putin, but in Russia this does not mean that they have any power over him or those in the Kremlin.
Absence clearly fixed property rights and the legal and institutional framework means that the oligarchs are still dependent on the Kremlin. Judgments in favor of or against the oligarchs can easily be reversed depending on the favor of the Kremlin.
Putin has made it clear how dangerous it is to challenge his power. Mikhail Khodorkovsky was once the richest man in Russia, having acquired several formerly state-owned oil fields in Siberia and created the «Yukos» corporation. On a TV broadcast in the Kremlin in 2003, he dared to criticize government corruption. In response, Putin deprived Khodorkovsky of his assets and sent him to prison for 10 years.
An experience like that of Khodorkovsky explains why so few oligarchs are speaking out now. Those who said anything about the war did so from places like London, where Mikhail Fridman, founder of «Alfa Bank», issued a statement saying that « can't be the answer», but didn't criticize the President. Despite this, Putin, in a recent speech, ranked the oligarchs in the ranks of the enemy-the West, saying that they cannot do without oysters with foie gras and that their thoughts are far from Russia. He vowed to spit them out, «like a midge that flew into our mouth». Perhaps that is why Chubais, who not only oversaw privatization, but also became an oligarch himself and retained Putin's favor, folded with The West must prioritize what it believes gives Russia superpower status: oil and the military to influence them.
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The oil and gas sector of Russia provides up to 40% of the country's federal budget revenues and provides 60% of the country's exports. That's why President Biden's focus on sanctions banning oil imports is important, if somewhat symbolic, given how little the US imports from Russia. While Germany has halted the development of a major gas pipeline, the European Union has not stopped Russian gas supplies, which account for about 40% of its needs. If European countries were serious about influencing Putin's thinking, they would spend less time grabbing yachts oligarchs, and further reduce their dependence on Russian energy. Similarly, the West should insist that India and China join the anti-Russian sanctions.
The best way to undermine the Russian army — restrict access to technology.
As it became clear on the ground in Ukraine, the Russian military lacks the vital hardware and software used by other modern forces to collect real-time field intelligence, as well as the communications systems needed for the effective use of this intelligence. And the multi-day delay of a tank column suggests that the Russians do not have a sophisticated system for supplying troops with food and gas.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Friedman, a London-based oligarch who fell under British sanctions, said that if the European Union thinks what can tell Putin «stop the war and it will work, then I'm afraid everyone is in big trouble» because it means Western leaders «don't understand anything about how the Russia».