Officials Seizing Russian Yachts Now May Steal Americans’ Property in the Future

Efforts to punish Russia for invading Ukraine rely not just on funneling weapons to the beleaguered defenders but also on economic sanctions to deny Vladimir Putin’s regime resources and to inflict pain until the aggression stops. Among the targets are “Russian elites and their families,” in President Joe Biden’s words, whose assets are being seized to pressure the regime. But calling somebody an “oligarch” is no substitute for legal proceedings, and the U.S. government is stretching already sketchy asset forfeiture powers in ways that will, no doubt, create precedents for the future.

“Did you see these yachts we’re—that are being picked up?” President Biden boasted this week. “Think about the—the incredible amounts of money these oligarchs have stolen. These yachts are a hundred—millions and millions of dollars.”

The president riffed off a Justice Department announcement of the seizure of “a $90 million yacht— named the Tango — belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.” Spanish authorities took the yacht using a U.S. warrant issued as part of Task Force KleptoCapture, launched after the invasion “to hold accountable corrupt Russian oligarchs.” KleptoCapture is a catchy name, but it glosses over the fact that, while many wealthy Russians are close to Putin’s regime, calling them “oligarchs” isn’t the same as demonstrating that they share responsibility for the war.

“The western media employ the term ‘oligarch’ to describe super-wealthy Russians in general, including those now wholly or largely resident in the west,” Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft wrote last month in the Financial Times. “The term gained traction in the 1990s, and has long been seriously misused. In the time of President Boris Yeltsin, a small group of wealthy businessmen did indeed dominate the state, which they plundered in collaboration with senior officials. This group was, however, broken by Putin during his first years in power.” – READ MORE