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world news Diabierna 27 Mei 2022

West mulls having Russian oligarchs buy way out of sanctions

BERLIN (AP) — Western offshore banking centers.
allies are considering wheth- That vast fortune, held by a
er to allow Russian oligarchs few hundred ultra-rich indi-
to buy their way out of sanc- viduals, is roughly equal to
tions and using the money to the wealth of the rest of Rus-
rebuild Ukraine, according sia's 144 million people.
to government officials fa- Some oligarchs have also
miliar with the matter. obtained dual citizenship in
Canadian Deputy Prime Britain and other Western
Minister and Finance Min- countries.
ister Chrystia Freeland pro- The family fortunes of many
posed the idea at a G-7 fi- in Russia's billionaires date
nance ministers' meeting in back to the 1990s, the tur-
Germany last week. bulent decade after the fall
Freeland raised the issue after of the Soviet Union. Un-
oligarchs spoke to her about der the notoriously corrupt
it, one official said. The Ca- presidency of Boris Yeltsin,
nadian minister knows some state-controlled assets such
Russian oligarchs from her as as oil refineries, steel mills,
time as a journalist in Mos- aluminum smelters and trac-
cow. tor factories were gobbled up
The official said the Ukrai- by the politically influential,
nians were aware of the dis- often purchased with the aid
cussions. The official said it's of government-backed loans.
also in the West's interests Freeland, Canada's finance
to have prominent oligarchs minister, is of Ukrainian her-
dissociate themselves from itage and wrote a book about
Russian President Vladi- it.
mir Putin while at the same Hitting oligarchs financially
time providing funding for impacts Putin as well, and
Ukraine. avenues of confiscating as- League soccer teams. The EU has imposed asset not just because it may di-
"We would not be talking sets and proving money to Former Chelsea owner Ro- freezes and travel bans on minish the support of Rus-
about this if there wasn't Ukraine. man Abramovich, who was more than 1,000 people, in- sia's financially privileged for
some comfort on the part of The proposal could help re- sanctioned over his links to cluding over 30 oligarchs, in Putin, said Alex Finley, a for-
the Ukrainians," the official move a legal hurdle for au- Putin, has said that net pro- response to Russia's invasion mer CIA officer who tracks
said. "We need to know that it thorities in countries such as ceeds from the sale of the of Ukraine on Feb. 24. the impact of sanctions on
works for them, too." Germany, where the bar for soccer team would be do- Almost 10 billion euros Russian oligarchs.
The officials spoke on con- confiscating frozen assets is nated to victims of the war ($10.7 billion) of assets have Putin is too cagey to keep his
dition of anonymity as they very high. By voluntarily giv- in Ukraine. A deal to sell the so far been frozen by EU considerable wealth in bank
were not authorized to speak ing up a share of their fortune soccer club has dragged out countries, according to the accounts or even family bank
publicly about internal G-7 abroad, oligarchs would save as the British government European Commission. It accounts, Russia experts say.
discussions. Western governments the makes sure that Abramovich has established a "Freeze and "A lot of these guys are his
The proposal was raised in potential embarrassment of does not profit from the en- Seize" task force to coordi- wallet," Finley said of the
the context of providing ad- being rebuffed by their own forced sale. nate the enforcement of what Russian oligarchs. "They
ditional money to Ukraine courts. The British government are unprecedented EU pen- help with laundering his
and how the frozen funds Western countries have im- this week approved the sale alties against Russia. money, laundering their own
and assets of oligarchs could posed a raft of sanctions on of Chelsea to a consortium A 2017 study of Russian money, and yachts and other
be a source of funds. oligarchs in response to Rus- fronted by a part-owner of oligarchs published by the assets are places to hold that
At this point, it is just an idea, sia's invasion of Ukraine. the Los Angeles Dodgers. U.S.-based National Eco- money."
the official said, but Western Many of their multibillion- Chelsea has been operating nomic Bureau estimated that
allies have expressed inter- dollar fortunes are inter- under a government license as much as $800 billion is
est. European Union officials twined with the West, from that expires on May 31 since held by wealthy Russians in
have talked about the need investments in Silicon Valley Abramovich's assets were the United Kingdom, Swit-
to look at different and new startups to British Premier frozen in March. zerland, Cyprus and other

Moldova's ex-president placed under 30-day house arrest

BUDAPEST, Hungary claimed the charges against one of the former presidents — nominally peacekeepers breakaway state that borders
(AP) — A court in Moldova him were politically moti- of the Republic of Moldova — in the separatist Moldo- southwestern Ukraine.
placed former President Igor vated and at the behest of and those close to him, but van region of Transnistria,
Dodon under 30-day house foreign powers. also other persons who have a disputed, Russian-backed
arrest on Thursday as he fac- "It is a political issue aimed a connection to the commis-
es an investigation into sus- at neutralizing the opposi- sion of the alleged acts."
pected treason, corruption, tion," Dodon said in a video Dodon has denied wrongdo-
illicit enrichment and illegal published by Moldovan news ing. In a post on Facebook on
party financing. site Protv.md. "It is strange Tuesday, he wrote that he had
The ruling came after and despicable for those who explanations for any allega-
Dodon, who served as Mol- ... filled all the state institu- tions.
dova's president from 2016 tions with foreign, Roma- "This is not the first time I
to 2020 and leads the Eastern nian, American and German have become the target of a
European country's pro-Rus- advisers, who control all of politically directed and di-
sian opposition bloc, was de- the institutions, to accuse me rected justice system," he
tained Tuesday at his home in of treason." wrote.
the capital of Chisinau after Following Dodon's deten- One of Europe's poorest
it was searched by investiga- tion, senior anti-corruption countries, Moldova is an ex-
tors. prosecutor Elena Cazacov Soviet republic that gained
Speaking as he left a court- said the subjects of the police independence in 1991.
room Thursday, Dodon investigation were "mainly Russia maintains troops