Western sanctions imposed in response to the war in Ukraine are hitting Russia hard. But too many oligarchs who have fueled Russian President Vladimir Putin’s patronage networks and long enjoyed the amenities of the West are facing only a half-hearted crackdown.
Key oligarchs, including the Rotenberg brothers and Alisher Usmanov, have been sanctioned. But in a telling move, the United Kingdom also sanctioned Usmanov after the United States and European Union had done so. And other Putin cronies, such as Mikhail Fridman remain unscathed by either U.S. or British sanctions. (The EU has sanctioned Fridman.) This has allowed the oligarchs to relocate assets and limit their exposure to future sanctions. Only belatedly sanctioned on Thursday, Roman Abramovich has had time to shield his assets.
It’s a mistake.
These men have provided the financial lubricant and veneer of Western legitimacy that have allowed Putin to undermine the democratic international order. This money has enabled Putin the political authority and security service obedience to inflict havoc on the world. In recent years, Putin has poisoned dissidents in Britain and Russia, he has leveled Syrian hospitals and now Ukrainian hospitals, he has launched devastating cyberattacks on Western companies and governments, he has interfered in numerous elections, and he has supported China’s imperial gambit in the Indo-Pacific.
Supporting Ukraine’s fragile sovereignty requires acting with speed and aggression. That means imposing a serious cost on Putin now, which in turn means imposing serious costs on those who have supported him.
But what’s happening in Britain demonstrates why the U.S. must take the lead against these oligarchs.
It’s not just that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is moving slowly — it’s that the oligarchs are deterring even a public debate over whether they should be sanctioned. British parliamentarian Bob Seely underlined this problem in the House of Commons on Wednesday. Seely disclosed that the oligarchs’ British lawyers are warning journalists that media reporting on parliamentarians’ oligarch-related comments may be “unlawful and seriously defamatory.” The Daily Mail’s Guy Adams confirmed that he has received such a letter. To his credit, Seely has named the individual lawyers leading what he calls this “coalition of the woeful.”
They include John Kelly of Harbottle & Lewis, Geraldine Proudler of CMS, and the barrister Hugh Tomlinson of Matrix Chambers.
As I have previously noted, the scale and depth of Johnson’s Conservative Party’s crony relationship with Russian money is quite astonishing. The Conservative-oligarch crony power dynamic is perhaps best exemplified by Conservative donor Mohamed Amersi.
In his speech, Seely also noted that Nigel Tate of the Carter-Ruck firm is taking legal action against former Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie. In 2020, Leslie and Winston Churchill’s grandson Nicholas Soames raised concerns over Amersi’s effort to become chairman of the party’s influential Conservative Middle East Council.
It’s easy to see why Tate was the man for Amersi’s job. Without a hint of embarrassment, Carter-Ruck proudly proclaims how Tate “has prevented the publication of many articles about clients, often by means of a phone call or letter.”
Not this time.
Although English defamation laws deter them from openly saying so, top British newspapers have outlined Amersi’s involvement in corruption. The Financial Times has reported on Amersi’s handling of a deal between two corrupt Russian oligarchs, Leonid Reiman and the aforementioned Fridman. As the Guardian reported, Amersi also advised on “a deal that was later found to be a $220m bribe for the daughter of the then-president of Uzbekistan.”
Quite ludicrously, however, Amersi has been permitted to support projects run by Prince Charles. He also retains access to the highest levels of the Conservative Party.
This brings us back to the need for U.S. action. The global reach of the U.S. economy, as well as its scale, means that U.S. sanctions against Amersi, Fridman, Abramovich, their oligarch compatriots, and the law firms that work so hard to discourage scrutiny would have an outsize effect. The choice to make (or, in the Conservative Party’s case, to take) an easy buck and enable corruption would have to be judged against the risk of U.S. prosecution or lost access to the U.S. economy.
Congress should not sit idle. What’s happening in Ukraine cuts to the heart of what America stands for. Just because Britain is willing to give some of Putin’s oligarchs a pass doesn’t mean the U.S. should do the same thing.
Editor’s note: Shortly after the publication of this article, the British government sanctioned Roman Abramovich. The article has been updated to reflect that development.
