Putin's inner circle: which allies have been sanctioned and what is the relationship with the Kremlin?

Vladimir Putin's circle has changed. Many of his most loyal allies were not aware of the president's plans to invade Ukraine, nor were they prepared to sanctions. Several Russian sources told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica in Kiev: “For many years, those who have built fame and empire at home, or who have developed a sweet life abroad between Western villages and huge hidden accounts, are now seeing their castle collapse like sand. Western sanctions”.

According to reports by US and European intelligence officials, as Putin intensified the war, the president isolated himself more and more. It seems that businessmen and politicians who once belonged to Putin's inner circle no longer want or can't put pressure on him to change course.

More and more advisors and former devotees, including industrialist Oleg Deripaska and billionaire banker Mikhail Fridman, should now make their voices heard.

The Washington Post has managed to identify some key players among a vast network of political and economic elites surrounding Russian leaders. Many of these people have been sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom or the European Union, while others no longer have restrictions.

In the Russian context, oligarchs are very wealthy business elites with unbalanced political power. They appeared in two distinct waves.

The first group emerged from the privatization of the 1990s, in particular the cash sales of the largest public companies since 1995. This process has been undermined by serious corruption, which has resulted in the notorious “share lending” system. The program transferred shares of 12 major natural resource companies from the government to select tycoons in exchange for loans aimed at strengthening the federal budget.

The government deliberately defaulted on its loans, allowing creditors and future oligarchs to auction off the shares of giants.

After Putin came to power in 2000, he promoted the second wave of oligarchy through state contracts. Private providers in many sectors, such as infrastructure, defense, and healthcare, will overcharge the government at a price several times higher than the market, offering bribes to relevant state officials. Putin has thus enriched the new oligarchs who owe huge fortunes.

In essence, Putin proposed a deal. The oligarchs will withdraw from politics, and the Kremlin will stop doing business and will often leave illegal interests alone.

The oligarchs helped Putin stay in power through political stillness and financial support for the Kremlin's internal initiatives. These people have huge interests in industries such as metallurgy, banking, technology, petrochemicals, and luxury real estate.

According to media reports, government statements, financial data leaks, and in some cases interviews with men, many were old friends or partners of the president, including Arkady Rotenberg, Putin's childhood friend and former judo partner.

In the English Premier League, some like Roman Abramovich, owner of the Chelsea Football Club, have long denied direct financial relations with Putin. In the case of Abramovich, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last week that “clear evidence” was emerging linking Abramovich to the Putin regime.

However, others, such as Petr Aven, recognized his relationship with Putin. In an interview with the US UU, Robert S. Muller III, who investigated Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, said that he was one of 50 wealthy Russian businessmen who regularly met with Putin. Nevertheless, he and his business partner Mikhail Fridman (Mikhail Fridman) in a statement earlier this month “lie about the imposition of EU sanctions It becomes and will challenge unfounded motives”.

In Russia, most media are controlled directly or indirectly by the state or by entities linked to President Putin. The few remaining independent media outlets face numerous restrictions in their work, many of which are classified as “foreign agents”.

Today, words such as “war”, “Ukrainian army” or “aggression” are not available in the media under the threat of blocking the web and economic fines. The broadcast media does not broadcast images of the Russian hospital during the pandemic, so they do not broadcast images of Ukraine. This invasion slandered part of Ukraine and was presented as a “military operation” aimed at protecting the Russian-speaking population from “genocide.” However, many Russian journalists were at war. I was against it. They encouraged a declaration of condemnation and condemned the cultural, economic and social depravity that the conflict would bring to Russia.

Disinformation is an ancient technique that is systematically used in armed conflict. Russia has developed a great cyber capability to generate fraud and disinformation abroad, known as “Internet research institutes” and RT and Sputnik media, etc. The media creates content, trolls act on social networks, generating many confusing narratives, creating doubts and confusing facts and opinions.The main purpose of these operations is to build and disseminate claims in favor of the Russian government and foreign policy.

In order to avoid the misinformation and toxic content they generate, the EU said last month that it was targeting a large number of media personalities to impose sanctions, and announced restrictions that all those listed in the official journal were using the Russian platform to support “actions or policies” that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”

This includes publishers, writers, journalists, and talk show organizers of the most important television networks in the United States. All of them are described as spreading anti-Ukrainian propaganda from the EU.

Critics of Russia have said that sanctioning energy exports would be the best way to force Moscow to withdraw.

Russia is an energy-rich country with the largest gas reserves in the world. Europe is heavily dependent on energy imported from Russia, the second largest exporter of crude oil in the world after Saudi Arabia. Oil and natural gas exports are essential to the Kremlin's economy, but it's also one of Putin's most important geopolitical weapons.

The United States has banned all energy imports from Russia, including oil. Germany has also stated that it will suspend the approval of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. However, as Western leaders are wary of measures that could harm their consumers, these products have generally not spared sanctions. After the invasion of Russia, oil prices have already risen.

The state-owned oil company Rosneft is one of the largest listed oil companies in the world, and its CEO and president, Igor Sechin, has long contributed and is loyal to Putin. Nikolai Tokarev, the main general of the Russian secret service, who worked with Putin in the 1980s, is now the president of Transneft, a state-owned company that transports most of the oil extracted in Russia.

Putin's cabinet includes Defense Minister, hunting and fishing companion Sergei Shoigu and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The US and the EU have targeted sanctions for both men in recent weeks. Both men have not publicly commented on the sanctions.

However, according to Russian investigative journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, politician Shoigu, who had no combat experience, said he was “one of the most ambitious members of Putin's inner circle.” He received Putin from his home in the mountains of Siberia, and local media reports collected by the Post describe him as a “close ally” and “friend” of the president.

However, according to Lieutenant-General Scott D. Berrier, director of the Defence Intelligence Service, Ukraine's fierce resistance to the aggression caused the loss of 4,000 Russian soldiers.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin (Sergei Sobyanin) are currently not necessarily key advisors, but are responsible for implementing Putin's domestic policy. That's why Switzerland and the EU turned to Mishustin for sanctions, and Canada included Sobyanin on the list.

Putin is a former intelligence officer, so he trusts military and security officials more, say the experts. Some of them have existed for many years, from Chechnya to Syria to Crimea.

Among the most important listed in the Washington Post are the head of the Federal Security Service, Alexander Bortnikov, the Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, and Sergei Naryshkin, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin. Valery Gerasimov acts as Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and is partially responsible for the war plan.

According to US and European intelligence officials, Putin's close advisers may not tell the truth about the difficulty and cost of the war. It is also not known who makes a decisionthe truth is that for three weeks after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, despite the presence of an advanced air force, it has not yet managed to gain control of the Ukrainian sky and suffered huge military losses.

Infographic: Marcelo Regalado

(Includes information from AP)

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