Switzerland is a refuge for Russian oligarchs after the war in Ukraine

Wealthy Russians continued to transfer money to Switzerland even after Russian invasion of Ukraineaccording to an investigation by the journalistic group Tamedia, citing as an example the case of a director of a public enterprise who actively supports the war.

According to this investigation, the daughter and partner of Alexander Ponomarenko, the director of Mosvodokanal – this company supplies drinking water to the city of Moscow – “deposited millions in Switzerland, even after the war had begun.” The group’s research team analyzed, in collaboration with a media consortium, Russian documents and data from a Zurich asset manager that ended up temporarily on the “dark web” after a ransomware attack.

In June 2022, while the UN denounced in Geneva the atrocities against civilians in Mariupol, Ponomarenko’s daughter “almost simultaneously” opened an account at Reyl Bank in Zurich, into which $9.5 million was deposited shortly afterwards. In November of the same year his partner had about 26 million dollars in Julius Baer and another 4.5 million in the Pictet bank.

In March 2022, Switzerland banned its banks from accepting deposits of more than 100,000 francs from Russian citizens. Many banks, including Julius Baer, ​​had voluntarily announced that they were “divorcing” their Russian clients.

But these restrictions are easily bypassed, especially if one has a “golden passport”. Ponomarenko’s partner and daughter have a passport or residence permit in an EU country, which allows them not to be considered as “clients from Russia”, notes Tamedia.

Although Ponomarenko’s name is not on the lists of people sanctioned by Ukraine’s allies, “the daughter and partner of a director of a public enterprise are politically exposed persons” and therefore “high-risk clients” for the banks, noted Greta Fenner, the director of the Basel Institute for Governance, which helps governments trace ill-gotten wealth.

Switzerland is often criticized, particularly by the US, which accuses it of not doing enough to trace the assets of Russian oligarchs.

Kremlin attacks oligarchs who express ‘anti-Russian views’

In the meantime The Kremlin has launched an attack on Russian businessmen who express “anti-Russian views” to get Western sanctions lifted, calling them “traitors ready to sell out their country… for 12 silvers”.

The European Union has decided not to extend sanctions imposed on three Russian businessmen over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Those punitive measures were set to expire later this week. However, sanctions against several other Russian businessmen were extended.

The three Russian businessmen are Grigory Berezhkin, billionaire Farhad Akhmedov and former head of online electronics company Ozon Alexander Shulgin. So far, nearly 1,600 individuals and more than 200 entities are on the EU sanctions list, which dates back to 2014, when Russia seized the Crimea region from Ukraine.

When asked about this lifting of sanctions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters today that it was unlikely that Europe itself could explain the logic behind the decision-making process for these sanctions.

Russian businessmen adopted different methods in trying to be removed from the sanctions list, the Kremlin spokesman said. “There are businessmen who slip into anti-Russian positions and try to escape the sanctions for 12 silvers – they are traitors,” Peskov said.

“There are (also) businessmen who systematically and methodically defend their interests in the courts – this is the right of every businessperson and we treat this with respect,” he added.

Russia considers any confiscation of private property or encroachment on individual business assets “contrary … to international law,” he added. Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week called Yandex technology company co-founder Arkady Voloz a “talented man” who has the right to express his opinion after the businessman’s anti-war rhetoric last month.

Voloz, whose EU sanctions were extended this week, last month criticized Russia’s “barbaric” invasion of Ukraine, while within Russia he has been criticized for his apparent efforts to distance himself from his country.

“This is connected to the desire of these people to keep their businesses, to keep their assets, especially if people have moved and decided to live their lives in another country,” Putin said on Tuesday. Yandex is pushing through a corporate restructuring that will eventually see its main revenue-generating operations in Russia spun off from its Dutch-registered parent company, Yandex NV.