Stick instead of carrot! Alexei Navalny makes this demand and calls on the western world to impose sanctions on the Russian moguls and those loyal to Putin. Far too many of them have been spared so far.
While half the world is watching the front lines in Ukraine, behind the lines Vladimir Putin continues to wreak vengeance on his nemesis. On June 14, opposition politician Alexei Navalny was transferred to the high-security penal colony in . The known, is located almost 250 kilometers east of Moscow and is notorious as a torture chamber. The opposition leader is to spend at least nine years of his life in prison here – if the Kremlin has its way. (Read more about the atrocious conditions in the detention center here.)
But even if the prison authorities keep tightening their vices to make life in prison unbearable for Navalny, the opposition politician does not give up the fight against Vladimir Putin’s regime. Through his lawyers, the 46-year-old is making an urgent appeal to Western societies: “Putin’s war in Ukraine has been going on for six months. From day one, Western leaders have firmly stated that Putin’s oligarchs and corrupt officials expect sanctions, from which they will not escape this time. But they escaped from them,” said Navalny in his message, which was spread on social networks.
The great words of Western politicians are not followed by deeds, Putin’s arch-enemy denounces. Of the 200 people on the Forbes list of Russia’s richest people, just 46 are under EU, US or UK sanctions. “In my opinion, that doesn’t come very close to a declared war against Putin’s oligarchs,” Navalny sums up, citing a few names that surprisingly don’t actually appear on the Western sanctions lists.
No EU sanctions for Gazprom boss
One of the names is Alexej Miller, the CEO and Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the state-controlled largest Russian company and world’s largest energy supplier Gazprom. “How is it even possible that Gazprom boss Miller, Putin’s most important confidant since the 1990s, is still not on the European sanctions list? A man who literally stole Gazprom and is now sponsoring Putin’s family and lovers?” Navalny wants to know.
Miller has been part of Putin’s inner circle for decades. Their path together began, as in the case of so many of Putin’s confidants, in the Saint Petersburg city government in the 1990s. At the time, Miller was working on the Economic Reform Committee and later on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Putin was his boss there. And he took his loyal subordinate with him on his rise to power. Since 2001, Miller has been CEO of Gazprom.
“Alexei Miller has Putin’s trust. He’s someone who is unconditionally loyal. Putin gives the orders, Miller executes them,” said Alexander Gabuyev, an energy market analyst at the Carniege Center, a think tank that focuses on domestic and foreign policy .
In the war in Ukraine, too, Miller is a loyal supporter of Putin. His weapon is the gas cock. He is cutting back supplies and threatening to plunge Germany, among other places, into darkness and cold this winter.
Miller has been on the US sanctions list since 2018. Britain has also sanctioned the gas baron for profiting from Putin’s machinations and “supporting activities” that weaken Ukrainian sovereignty. Only he is not yet on the sanctions list of the EU.
Nickel magnate completely spared from sanctions
But he’s in good company there. The number two on the Russian Forbes list is not even subject to sanctions anywhere: Vladimir Potanin. Even though his wealth has fallen by $9.7 billion to $17.3 billion because of the war, the nickel magnate remains one of Russia’s richest men – and is considered a loyal financier to Putin.
“The oligarch Potanin publicly praises Putin. He boasts that he doesn’t care about sanctions. That it’s Western politicians who don’t know what inconveniences and inconveniences are, but he will put up with anything for Putin,” writes Navalny about Potanin. For a man who has so far been spared any sanctions, however, there will probably not be many inconveniences he has to endure.
The alleged reason: Potanin’s mining company Nornickel is of great importance for the global metals commodity market. According to Bloomberg, Potanin controls 35 percent of Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of nickel (world market share 14 percent), which is needed in particular for battery production. Nornickel is also one of the most important producers of palladium, which is used in the manufacture of semiconductors and catalysts, among other things. Nornickel holds a 40 percent market share here. Observers assume that Potanin and his mining company will not be sanctioned because the western states do not want to push the already high metal prices and supply bottlenecks further to the extreme.
Lisa Peskova and Dmitry Medvedev’s bag of tricks
While some don’t even get on the sanctions lists, such as the oil magnate and one of the financiers of the notorious Putin palace on the Black Sea, Ziad Manasir, others find easy ways to circumvent the sanctions, criticizes Navalny. A vivid example: “Lisa Peskova, the daughter of Putin’s press secretary Peskov, gave her mother (who has a different surname) an apartment in Paris that her father had given her over to her mother (who has a different surname). The apartment is safe now, well done Lisa.” comments Navalny pointedly.
“Even the insane freak Medvedev, who sings about the war every day and threatens to occupy all neighboring countries, was able to twist the European Union around his finger simply by transferring his yacht ‘Fotinia’ to any company. Now she is parked in Finland with peace of mind.” referring to former Russian president and latest contender for the post of Kremlin court jester, Dmitry Medvedev. (Read more about this here.)
“We cannot wait for a split in the Putin elite in relation to the war if, despite many announcements, the promised stick is not waved. And they have enough carrots themselves,” emphasizes Navalny. “I call on all voters and legislators in the EU, UK, US and Canada to put pressure on the executive branch and force it to stop demagogy and immediately move to massive personal sanctions against Putin’s thieves.” In contrast to difficult political decisions such as an embargo on oil and gas, there are simple means: “Personal sanctions. All that is required here is political will.”
“Let’s not forget: sanctions are necessary to force the aggressor to end the war,” reminds Navalny.
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Source: Stern
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