What exactly is a Russian oligarch?
Will seizing Russian oligarchs' mega-yachts convince Vladimir Putin to end his war in Ukraine? Western countries are sure going to try..
Will seizing Russian oligarchs' mega-yachts convince Vladimir Putin to end his war in Ukraine? Western countries are sure going to try..
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00:00Tonight, I say to the Russian oligarchs and the corrupt leaders who built billions of
00:05dollars off this violent regime, no more.
00:17All men that emerged out of places like Russia and other post-Soviet states, especially in
00:22the 1990s and the 2000s, became insanely wealthy in the process.
00:28These are all these billionaires that gained their wealth through, again, underhanded,
00:33illicit, suspect means.
00:36Maybe it was links to organized crime, maybe it was links to dictators, and then beyond
00:40that used all this financial secrecy all around the world, and especially in places like the
00:44U.S., to hide and launder so much of their money.
00:51Yeah, because of these sanctions, and because they're afraid of losing stuff, a bunch of
01:01these oligarchs are already speaking out against Putin's war.
01:12So 1991, the Soviet Union collapses, 15 brand new countries emerge.
01:18New governments, new legislators, new regulations, all of it trying to build up as quickly as
01:25possible.
01:26What we saw happen is that all of the Soviet Union's natural resource wealth, all of its
01:31gas fields, all of its oil wells, all of its steel plants, all of its mining facilities,
01:36the government still technically owned that, but they needed money, and so what they ended
01:39up doing is selling all these assets at bottom basement or bargain basement prices.
01:44I've never heard of a more perfect description of a Russian oligarch, a former KGB agent
01:50who made his money off nickel mining.
01:52These specific figures that had political connections, and that also had connections
01:56to organized crime, they're able to use extra legal means, they're able to use muscle and
02:00violence and bloodshed to get an insider track into gaining access to these incredible resources.
02:14One of those is a gentleman named Roman Abramovich, and Abramovich made so much of his money through
02:29links to President Putin.
02:30He was a Russian oligarch that invested a lot of that wealth that he made in the 1990s
02:34and 2000s into things like Chelsea Football Club.
02:37There's one guy named Viktor Vekselberg who's well known for having one of the biggest private
02:42Fabergé egg collections that he brought back to President Putin.
02:46We have another oligarch named Pyotr Avin who has this incredible collection of high
02:51end artwork.
02:52His art collection is so massive that he's now lending out pieces of artwork to museums
02:56in New York, museums in London.
02:58These are really key cultural touchstones of country after country that these guys have
03:02been able to build up for years and years.
03:12They look like companies on paper.
03:19They can move money, they can move assets, they can own assets as well.
03:23The problem is these companies exist only on paper.
03:26They exist only to act as basic black boxes for these oligarchs to move and hide their
03:32money because it strips any identifying information from these oligarchs or from where this money
03:37actually comes from.
03:38If you're looking at these companies, you have no idea who's actually behind them.
03:51These shell companies end up investing, they end up owning all of these different assets.
03:55Things like real estate, luxury condos, mansions and penthouses, but also office buildings
04:00and steel mills, port facilities, oil wells, all kinds of real estate investments in things
04:06like private equity and hedge funds.
04:08You see things like the art market transforming into a go-to vehicle for hiding and laundering
04:14billions and billions of dollars in oligarchic wealth.
04:17And then, of course, you have things like the yachts, these beautiful gargantuan super
04:21yachts that are hundreds of feet long.
04:24I mean, these are floating fortresses out there that these oligarchs absolutely love.
04:28And again, all of this comes back to the anonymity because no one can track back who actually
04:33owns these assets.
04:34Who's behind these shell companies?
04:40We're sanctioning three very high net worth individuals.
04:50Any assets they hold in the UK will be frozen.
04:53The individuals concerned will be banned from traveling here and we will prohibit all UK
05:00individuals and entities from having any dealings with them.
05:03We're talking about specific targeted sanctions against specific oligarchs and their specific
05:08companies to make sure they can no longer access things like the American financial
05:11market or British financial market, let alone travel to these countries in the first place
05:15itself.
05:16The other thing that it does, though, is it freezes all of their assets that are in the
05:20country itself.
05:21So all of these mansions, all of these yachts, all of these football clubs like Chelsea are
05:26completely frozen in place.
05:28They can't be touched.
05:29They can't be used.
05:30They can't be visited.
05:31They do not have any impact for political decision.