Ex-US ambassador offers Russian oligarchs to give 50% of their wealth to Ukraine to lift sanctions
Sanctions should be imposed on all Russian billionaires without exception, but they will be able to avoid them if they give half of their fortune to rebuild Ukraine and do a number of other things, the former US ambassador to Moscow (2012-2014) Michael McFaul, currently co-chairman of the international working group on sanctions against Russia, wrote in his blog.
In particular, if Russian businessmen want to get rid of sanctions, they should publicly condemn Russia's war against Ukraine and the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin personally, as well as get rid of capital investments in the Russian Federation, suggests McFaul.
He believes that this approach will put influential Russians in front of a choice: resign or face sanctions. According to McFaul, this will make the restrictions fairer.
The diplomat also proposed to regulate the imposition of restrictions on Russians, meaning the imposition of sanctions not by name, but based on the positions of Russian citizens.
He believes that this will help avoid a non-obvious procedure for making decisions on individual sanctions.
"Right now, it’s hard to understand why some are sanctioned and others are not," the former ambassador writes.
McFaul said members of the sanctions coalition should impose restrictions on all members of the Russian government, including the pro-Kremlin United Russia party and other parties that openly support Russia's war against Ukraine.
In addition, he writes, these restrictions should apply not only to all Russian billionaires, all executives and board members of state-owned enterprises, but also to all Putin propagandists, including artists who support the war of aggression.
- As of November 11, 2022, three Russian businessmen renounced their Russian citizenship because of Russia's war against Ukraine.