“Many may end up on the blacklist” – Kommersant FM

The EU has clarified the criteria for adding Russian entrepreneurs and companies to sanctions lists. At the same time, examples of ways out of restrictive measures appeared, including through lawsuits. There are also cases where sanctions are lifted from those who officially condemned Russia’s actions. The Kremlin called such people traitors. Kommersant FM political commentator Dmitry Drize believes that resisting sanctions pressure will be even more difficult.

We can congratulate Russian big businessmen – they are no longer oligarchs. It’s worth reminding right away that there are no official oligarchs in Russia. They once existed, in the unconstructive and dashing 90s, but we defeated this phenomenon. However, Europe did not entirely agree with this. In particular, they believed that if you came to the Kremlin to meet with the president, it means you are at one with the authorities.

But according to the latest changes and additions, at least citizens from the top ten of Russian Forbes are designated by the term “leading businessman.” The reason for this was numerous lawsuits, where Russian entrepreneurs argued that they were not oligarchs, but were engaged in an honest business that had nothing to do with politics.

Indeed, from a legal point of view, go and prove that a private company is working for the Russian government. Invited to the Kremlin – how to refuse? So what now, do you order to be subject to sanctions? The EU said okay and clarified the criteria: from now on, leading businessmen who work in Russia and those who provide significant income to the state can be blacklisted.

So there are actually few reasons for joy. The risk zone is expanding – many who are currently hiding may end up on the blacklist.

Nevertheless, some manage to remove the sanctions from themselves. There are, however, only a few of these today. But there are examples. And now the Kremlin has already outlined its criteria for how to treat such subjects – they are either outright traitors, or those who have not stooped to this level have honestly achieved their goal in the courts.

Apparently, to show the insignificance of the first category, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov even turned to the New Testament: they have fallen so low that they agree to sell their homeland not even for 30, but only for 12 pieces of silver. And all for the sake of a calm and rich life.

Be that as it may, we see new sanctions lists from the American Ministry of Finance, and Europe will also probably get involved soon. There seems to be no end to the sanctions. And even those who help bypass them are also, apparently, subjected to restrictions.

And as has been said many times before, tearful letters and persuasion do not really help. And even for those who decide to do something bad, for 12 or 30 pieces of silver they are ready to abandon their homeland and consider themselves some other businessman who does not belong to Russia, this also does not give any guarantees. Because the criteria remain vague. Nevertheless, we see that Western bureaucrats are working to bring all these rules under a certain denominator so that no one can formally circumvent these measures.

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