New York, United States–Over the past week at least half a dozen oligarch mega yachts have been seized or disabled in European ports, offshore havens like Isle of Mann have begun delisting private aircraft and McMansions in London have been occupied by activists – scenes straight out of a Hollywood script. Behind the inevitable memes and ancillary Twitter bots like the one following oligarch planes (@RUOligarchJets) is a concerted, yet faltering, global sanctions effort attempting to steer Vladimir Putin off his war against Ukraine.
“We cannot think that this is a silver bullet or panacea,” says journalist Casey Michel who has written extensively on kleptocratic systems. “Because we have some mansions or yachts does not mean we can move on, that is not the end of all of their financial investments.”
