Quote:
Originally Posted by flere-imsaho
Sanctions yes, targeting oligarchs, no.
Russian oligarchs want their money in the West, where it can't be nationalized by China or stolen by Putin if they piss him off. Additionally, they want their penthouse apartment in NYC, villa on the French Riviera, country estate in Berkshire, Yacht 1 moored in Miami, Yacht 2 moored in Nice, kids attending Philips Exeter or Eton, etc....
The West has the means to lock all of that down pretty quickly. This is exactly the mechanism behind the Magnitsky Act, and we know the Magnitsky Act works because it's the only thing that appears to discomfit Putin.
The lever is so obvious, so clear, so workable, that it's so, so disappointing that apparently most western governments appear to lack the will to use it (or, like Trump & Boris, are apparently too compromised to use it).
|
I don't think Putin is the genius some make him out to be. But he did learn that the West can be bought and has spent decades making sure that all the key figures around the world are in his pocket.
We knock the US, but the UK is actually the place that Russians go to for money laundering. They are in a unique position to stop the war in its tracks by clamping down and freezing criminal assets. They won't, and will even go as far as to use their libel laws to shut journalists up to protect Russia.