Most oligarchs can easily explain their wealth as legitimate

I don’t know how effective it is in terms of pressure on Putin to seize oligarch assets. It may make us feel good but that shouldn’t really be the object of the exercise, should it?

Some oligarchs are very close to Putin. Like Deripaska. (I cross examined him once. He’s the most frightening man I’ve ever met.) So hitting him makes sense because that’s a direct message to Putin.

But others definitely aren’t. I don’t think Ambramovich is - he’s a Yeltsin era oligarch and has been running away from Russia for years, hence the Israeli and Portuguese citizenships. Fridman is no Putin lover either. They just keep their heads down, don’t oppose him, stay out of politics. Does seizing their assets actually have any effect? I doubt it very much.

Posted By: Old Git, Mar 3, 09:05:22