What is a Russian oligarch?

Brut India

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...

Transcript

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.

00:27The oligarchs.

00:28Oligarchs.

00:29These are all these billionaires that gained their wealth through, again, underhanded,

00:33illicit, suspect means.

00:36Maybe it was links to organized crime.

00:37Maybe it was links to dictators.

00:38And then beyond that, used all this financial secrecy all around the world, and especially

00:44in places like the U.S., to hide and launder so much of their money.

00:59So, 1991, the Soviet Union collapses.

01:06Fifteen brand new countries emerge.

01:08New governments, new legislators, new regulations, all of it trying to build up as quickly as

01:15possible.

01:16What we saw happen is that all of the Soviet Union's natural resource wealth, all of its

01:22gas fields, all of its oil wells, all of its steel plants, all of its mining facilities,

01:27the government still technically owned that, but they needed money.

01:29And so what they ended up doing is selling all these assets at bottom basement or bargain

01:34basement prices.

01:35These specific figures that had political connections and that also had connections

01:38to organized crime.

01:39They're able to use extra legal means.

01:41They're able to use muscle and violence and bloodshed to get an insider track into gaining

01:47access to these incredible resources.

01:57One of those is a gentleman named Roman Abramovich, and Abramovich made so much of his money through

02:11links to President Putin.

02:13He was a Russian oligarch that invested a lot of that wealth that he made in the 1990s

02:17and 2000s into things like Chelsea Football Club.

02:20There's one guy named Viktor Vekselberg, who's well known for having one of the biggest private

02:24Fabergé egg collections that he brought back to President Putin.

02:29We have another oligarch named Pyotr Avin, who has this incredible collection of high

02:33end artwork.

02:34His art collection is so massive that he's now lending out pieces of artwork to museums

02:38in New York, museums in London.

02:40These are really key cultural touchstones of country after country that these guys have

02:44been able to build up for years and years.

02:54They look like companies on paper.

03:01They can move money, they can move assets, they can own assets as well.

03:05The problem is these companies exist only on paper.

03:08They exist only to act as basic black boxes for these oligarchs to move and hide their

03:15money because it strips any identifying information from these oligarchs or from where this money

03:19actually comes from.

03:20If you're looking at these companies, you have no idea who's actually behind them.

03:33These shell companies end up investing, they end up owning all of these different assets.

03:37Things like real estate, luxury condos, mansions and penthouses, but also office buildings

03:43and steel mills, port facilities, oil wells, all kinds of real estate investments in things

03:48like private equity and hedge funds.

03:50You see things like the art market transforming into a go-to vehicle for hiding and laundering

03:56billions and billions of dollars in oligarchic wealth.

03:59And then of course you have things like the yachts, these beautiful gargantuan super yachts

04:05that are hundreds of feet long.

04:06I mean, these are floating fortresses out there that these oligarchs absolutely love.

04:11And again, all of this comes back to the anonymity because no one can track back who actually

04:15owns these assets.

04:16Who's behind these shell companies.

04:18We are sanctioning three very high net worth individuals.

04:32Any assets they hold in the UK will be frozen.

04:36The individuals concerned will be banned from traveling here and we will prohibit all UK

04:42individuals and entities from having any dealings with them.

04:46We're talking about specific targeted sanctions against specific oligarchs and their specific

04:50companies to make sure they can no longer access things like the American financial

04:53market or British financial market, let alone travel to these countries in the first place

04:58itself.

04:59The other thing that it does, though, is it freezes all of their assets that are in the

05:02country itself.

05:03So all of these mansions, all of these yachts, all of these football clubs like Chelsea are

05:08completely frozen in place.

05:10They can't be touched.

05:11They can't be used.

05:12They can't be visited.

05:13They do not have any impact for political decision.

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