The tension between peaceable nations and the Russian Federation intensifies with each passing week. It is the path Vladimir Putin has chosen. The latest development is more serious than it may sound: Russian billionaire and Putin crony Roman Abramovich has had his visa renewal application postponed by the British Home Office. Abramovich isn’t just any Russian businessman doing business in England. He owns the Premier League soccer team Chelsea F. C., on which he has spent hundreds of millions of dollars. He keeps a residence in London and conducts business deals there—or at least he used to.
No reason for the Abramovich delay has been given, but it’s been widely interpreted as part of the retaliation for the Russian regime’s attempt to murder Sergei Skripal on British soil in March. The Home Office has announced it will “review” the immigration status of hundreds of Russians working in the United Kingdom. It’s a courageous move on the part of prime minister Theresa May—and very likely a better one than expelling Russian diplomats. One of the most effective means by which the West can weaken Putin’s power at home is to disrupt the symbiotic relationship between Putin and his wealthiest cronies—between the oligarchs who use their wealth and influence to further Putin’s aims, on the one hand, and the regime that offers them favor and protection, on the other.
Over the last six years the United States has imposed a variety of diplomatic and financial sanctions on scores of these oligarchs and on high-ranking government officials. We have targeted not only Russians who supply rogue regimes (Syria, Iran, North Korea) with financing and weaponry, but also those who abet the regime’s domestic abuses. Only when these powerbrokers are forced to choose between the regime’s president and their wealth will they begin to withdraw their support by taking their money elsewhere.
By in effect denying Abramovich’s visa renewal—he has since taken up Israeli citizenship and withdrawn his application—the British government has made it extremely difficult for Chelsea’s owner to superintend and enjoy the world-class soccer club that is one of his most prestigious possessions. Already he has scuttled plans to renovate the club’s stadium in London, on the understandable grounds that it makes no sense to spend money on a project in a country in which he’s barred from working.
Abramovich and Putin are particularly close; it is said that the financier suggested Putin to Boris Yeltsin as his successor. Abramovich long ago concluded that friendship with Putin is worth it. But we can hope that others among Putin’s powerful chums, as the list of sanctioned Russians grows long, will tire of having their investments blocked, their assets frozen, and their travel plans ruined.
This is a form of war that Putin’s regime has long engaged in. The arrest of Bill Browder in Spain on May 30 is only the latest example. The American-born financier and Putin critic was detained on the strength of a Russian-requested Interpol warrant but released almost immediately. The Spanish police referred vaguely to an expired date limit on the warrant. Browder had his own interpretation: “Spanish National Police just released me after Interpol General Secretary in Lyon advised them not to honor the new Russian Interpol Red Notice,” he tweeted. “This is the sixth time that Russia has abused Interpol in my case.” In other words, the Europeans aren’t going to do Vladimir Putin’s dirty work for him.
The Russian government hassles its foreign opponents when not attempting to murder them with military-grade nerve agents. The oligarchs are an extension of Putin’s effort to gain leverage around the world. European nations are finally acknowledging the realities of this new Cold War.
