蜜芽传媒

A raft of economic sanctions have been put in place to isolate President Vladimir Putin and his supporters after the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian economy has already shown the effects with a dramatic slide in the rouble and the banking sector severely restricted. The closest, richest supporters of Mr Putin known as the oligarchs have been targeted too. But could this encourage them to seek to influence him to stop the invasion?

Bill Browder, the Head of the Global Magnitsky Justice campaign, considers whether the sanctions against them are working. He used to be the largest foreign investor in Russia until in 2005 he was declared a threat to Russian national security for exposing state corruption. His lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was later arrested, imprisoned, and died after being beaten. Since then, Bill Browder has led the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign to advocate for targeted sanctions against corrupt officials. He says the sanctions need to be ramped up, to affect financial activity both inside and outside Russia, to be truly effective, and he hopes as the atrocities of the war increase, more countries will have the courage to effect these.

鈥淭here needs to be a total economic blockade so that (President) Putin is unable to fund this war.鈥�

(Pic: French customs officials seize the 'Pola Ariake' cargo vessel over Russia sanctions; Credit: Reuters)

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