How the West may have fueled the Russian oligarchy they now seek to punish

Western powers such as the US, the EU, and the UK have begun to mobilize against Russia's elite, anticipating that financial sanctions against the country's oligarchs could encourage Putin to end his invasion of Ukraine.

During his State of the Union address last month, President Joe Biden announced a task force focused on the crimes of Russian billionaires.

How did the West empower Russia?

Some argue that the West turned a blind eye as billionaires took advantage of loopholes.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia carried out the privatization of state-owned industries, often in a corrupt manner that allowed politically connected players to quickly gain wealth and power.

According to the liberal media platform More Perfect Union, a lot of their wealth is stored in offshore tax havens and companies through loopholes in Western governments to protect their money from sanctions.

—More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) March 14, 2022

Ben Judah, a foreign policy analyst and journalist, argued in a video that the US and Europe turned a blind eye when Russia's richest figures took advantage of policy loopholes, used shell companies to hide who owns what, and found ways to dodge taxation.

European and American billionaires use the same systems to hide their wealth.

We have an opportunity to shut down this shadowy world of offshore finance. He argued that it was a way to make sure that billionaires from around the world had less control of our economy and politics.

Though Russia's billionaires may not be as powerful as they once were, their influence still exists.

Russia's elite has lost most of their influence since Putin became president in 2000, according to a former U.S. ambassador.

It is more accurate to call these billionaires and Tycoons of certain industries, such as coal, oil, and energy, at this point in history.

Simon Miles, an assistant professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at Duke University, said that as Putin rose to power he aimed to reel in the oligarchs and limit their political influence.

The basic deal was that they could keep their wealth in exchange for subservience.

The formal meaning of oligopoly is less than it should be because they are dependent on the government as well as exercising enormous influence.

The tycoons are less powerful than Putin, but still powerful enough to exploit others.