Half of Russia’s 20 Richest Billionaires Are Not Sanctioned

John Smith spoke to Bloomberg about how half of Russia’s 20 richest people have not been sanctioned over its war in Ukraine, leaving a group of super-rich.

“There are reasons to go after some oligarchs and there are reasons to hold some in abeyance,” John said. “It can either be because they’re not believed to be close to the Kremlin decision-making or that they may be too difficult to sanction at the outset, and governments want to develop a plan before they pull the trigger.”

He added: “A primary objective of sanctions has to be that we hurt the sanctions target more than we hurt ourselves. When you talk about gas, Europe still needs Russia. The U.S. and its allies will be looking very carefully to see what products from Russia may be nearly essential to us and third country companies and seek to avoid those impacts.”

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