$7+ Billion Of Russian Oligarch’s Assets Frozen Amid Global Crackdown

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More than $7 billion worth of assets that are suspected to be tied to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich have reportedly been frozen in the island nation of Jersey amid worldwide pushes for financial penalties tied to the devastatingly violent actions in Ukraine of the Russian regime. (Jersey is in the English Channel among the Channel Islands, between France and the U.K., and its population is apparently a little over 100,000.) On Tuesday, April 12, Jersey authorities also reportedly searched buildings believed to be linked to Abramovich, who was sanctioned by the U.K. last month, some time after Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine began. (Although Jersey is self-governing, it’s linked to the U.K. through various cultural and legal means.) Abramovich was identified back in 2018 as the most wealthy resident of the Channel Islands.

According to the British outlet ITV, “Jersey’s External Relations Minister says the government will play its part in putting pressure on the Kremlin following the invasion of Ukraine, saying it is committed to remaining ‘in lockstep’ with the UK over the imposition of sanctions.” In the United Kingdom, recent actions against Abramovich meant assets of his were frozen there as well. Apparently, the U.K. government arrived at the suspicion that a steel company over which Abramovich exerted control — Evraz plc — supplied the Russian military, making him rather directly complicit in Russian forces’ brutal violence that has shaken Ukraine throughout recent weeks. Around the time U.K. authorities announced sanctions against Abramovich, the value of Evraz shares traded in the U.K. plummeted, meaning that his stake in the company apparently lost hundreds of millions of dollars in value in just a short time. The value dropped 11 percent after sanctions against Abramovich were unveiled, bringing his Evraz stake from a value of £1.4 billion — $1.8 billion in U.S. currency — at the end of last year to under £350 million much more recently.

In the U.S., hundreds and hundreds of interests inside Russia have been targeted with sanctions, and the government has undertaken other significant moves like endeavoring to ban Russian energy imports. The U.S. has also consistently provided defense support to Ukraine, giving the country’s defenders hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons. As summarized Tuesday by The Washington Post, “The Biden administration is poised to dramatically expand the scope of weapons it is providing Ukraine, U.S. officials said Tuesday, with the Pentagon looking to transfer armored Humvees and a range of other sophisticated equipment.” New rounds of weapons for Ukraine appear set to once again be in the range of hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars in value. Throughout the conflict, Ukraine has obtained high-profile strategic victories against Russian troops — keeping them, for instance, from taking the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv — but fighting continues. In Mariupol, preliminary information on the number of casualties reveals tens of thousands of apparently dead civilians amid relentless Russian attacks.