This report argues that kremligarchs is a more relevant term than “oligarchs”, as it shows a total predominance of Putin and Kremlin over all aspects of business in Russia. The report offers the latest recommendations for individual sanctions on eight key kremligarchs close to Vladimir Putin and his regime.
This case is a good example how negligence and reluctance in instances of crime and corruption that occurred on Russian soil vis-à-vis Western investors can eventually lead not only to the undermining of best business practices. In case of BP’s harassment by Kremlin-connected oligarchs and Russian security services, reluctance of UK and US law enforcement to react led to beneficiaries of harassment to use ill-gotten means to launder their reputation at University of Oxford and in other key academic and cultural institutions in the West that all failed to adequately use their due diligence rules.
This report was originally published by the Institute of Modern Russia in October 2018. It is written by Dr. Kateryna Smagliy, with a contribution from Ilya Zaslavskiy.
The report examines the structure of Kremlin’s propaganda-related institutions and their connections with Western and Russian academia, as well as their co-optation into the pool of proxy communicators for the Putin regime. The authors conclude that the current Russian government pursues a coherent “knowledge weaponization” strategy.
Information warfare aims to influence decision-making in the West in a way that would validate the interests of the ruling Russian kleptocracy.
The report details how Kremlin-linked think tanks design ideological doctrines and how Kremlin sympathizers promote pro-Kremlin propaganda narratives in the West.
Mr. Zaslavskiy’s legal battle against Alfa Bank demonstrates the innovative ways in which Russian oligarchs attempt to abuse the U.S. legal system to harass their critics.