Alisher Usmanov, one of the wealthiest men in the world, whose vast holdings are spread over several sectors of the global economy, is facing sanctions by the US, the UK and the EU. Besides frozen bank accounts and visa restrictions, he is no longer able to use his $600 million superyacht, named Dilbar after his mother.
Other Russian oligarchs, such as Nikolay Tokarev, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Boris Rotenberg, Sergey Chemezov, Igor Shuvalov, Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Peskov are facing sanctions in the US. Pyotr Aven and Mikhail Fridman have been sanctioned by the EU, and Igor Sechin has been sanctioned by the US and the EU.
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Many of these men have direct or indirect ties with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who is himself under international sanctions for going to war against Ukraine. Usmanov allegedly used his Kremlin connections to enrich himself, and Tokarev, according to the US Department of the Treasury, is “a long-time Putin associate” who served with the President in the Soviet Union’s Committee for State Security (KGB) as agents in Dresden, East Germany, in the 1980s. Tokarev is also president of one of Russia’s most important companies, Transneft.
What sets oligarchs apart from tycoons elsewhere in the world is that they are able to milk their connections with the government and make themselves rich and invincible through corruption and at the cost of the country.
According to the White House, some of the Russian oligarchs have elevated their family members to high-ranking positions, while others sit atop Russia’s largest companies.
What is the origin of the word oligarchy?
The word comes from Greek olígos, or a few, and arkho, or to rule. Hence, “rule of the few”.
In an oligarchy, power lies with a small group of powerful and privileged people or oligarchs. According to Matthew Simonton (Classical Greek Oligarchy: Princeton University Press), oligarchs designed “distinctive political institutions such as intra-oligarchic power sharing, targeted repression, and rewards for informants to prevent collective action among the majority population while sustaining cooperation within their own ranks”.
Ancient Greek oligarchies had to balance coercion with co-option in order to keep their subjects disorganized and powerless, much like modern authoritarian regimes. This involved control of public spaces, the manipulation of information and the establishment of patron-client relations, Simonton wrote.
Jeffrey Winters (Oligarchy: Cambridge University Press) wrote: “The existential motive of all oligarchs is wealth defence. How they respond varies with the threats they confront, including how directly involved they are in supplying the coercion underlying all property claims and whether they act separately or collectively. These variations yield four types of oligarchy: warring, ruling, sultanistic, and civil.”
According to Winters, oligarchy is not displaced by democracy but rather is fused with it. Case studies in the book include the US, ancient Athens and Rome, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, medieval Venice and Siena, mafia commissions in the US and Italy, feuding Appalachian families, and early chiefs cum oligarchs dating from 2300 BC.
Completely shrouded, the mega-yacht “Dilbar” lies in the Blohm+Voss Dock Elbe 17 in the harbor in Hamburg, Germany, Feb. 27, 2022. The 156-meter-long ship is said to belong to Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov. (AP/File)
How did the oligarchy in modern Russia come to be?
The collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s resulted in the oligarchs strengthening their business, social, and political positions. Their profiting was linked to heavy corruption, according to reports in the Western media.
For instance, when a $ 4 billion bridge was built over Black Sea’s Kerch Strait to connect Russia and Crimea, after another war by Russia in 2014, the contract was given to the President’s friend and former judo partner Arkady Rotenberg. Rotenberg and his sons Pavel and Igor and daughter Liliya have been sanctioned by the US at present.
The orange Kamaz truck that Putin drove across the bridge during the inauguration was made by a state-owned company, Rostec, manufactured by Sergei Chemezov, who was Putin’s partner from his KGB days in East Germany in the 1980s. Chemezov is being sanctioned by the US with His wife Yekaterina, his son Stanislav, and stepdaughter Anas.
What next for Russia’s oligarchs?
US President Joe Biden has said: “…I say to the Russian oligarchs and corrupt leaders who have bilked billions of dollars off this violent regime, no more. The US Department of Justice is assembling a dedicated task force to go after the crimes of Russian oligarchs.”
Bruno Le Maire, the finance minister of France, has announced that the yacht of another Putin ally, the oligarch Igor Sechin has been seized.
Pyotr Aven and Mikhail Fridman, described by EU as among Putin’s “closest oligarchs” and “enabler of Putin’s inner circle”, respectively, are contesting the sanctions by EU. Reuters reported that Fridman has called the sanctions being “groundless and unfair”.”For me that’s a huge tragedy what is going on,” Fridman said. “The war should be stopped.”
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Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, listens to Lebedinsky GOK Managing Director Oleg Mikhailov, left, as businessman Alisher Usmanov, right, and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov stand behind him while visiting the Lebedinsky GOK JSC, in Gubkin, Belgorod Region, Russia. (AP/File) 
Completely shrouded, the mega-yacht “Dilbar” lies in the Blohm+Voss Dock Elbe 17 in the harbor in Hamburg, Germany, Feb. 27, 2022. The 156-meter-long ship is said to belong to Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov. (AP/File)
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