Russian President Vladimir Putin has again received new sanctions from the US and European allies in a rare move targeting the personal wealth of a foreign leader.
However, the impact of such sanctions may be largely symbolic. Putin is believed to have billions of dollars in personal wealth, but little is known about the exact amount or where his fortune is.
Launching CNN Business in Jakarta, Tuesday (1/3/22) Putin barely leaves a paper trail for his assets, most of which are property. Those assets are hidden behind complex financial schemes orchestrated by his confidants, according to a 2016 "Panama Papers" report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Some of the luxuries are rumored to be a $100 million mega-yact and a Black Sea palace allegedly built for Putin's personal use.
On paper, the Russian leader looks like a humble bureaucrat. In 2018, Putin filed an official income declaration showing that he owned an 800-square-foot apartment in St. Petersburg, along with two Soviet-era cars and an off-road truck.
The Kremlin says its annual income of around $140,000 is not a typical figure in Russia, although it almost keeps Putin from wearing his luxury watches.
"Putin's watch collection that looks like it's worth double his official salary," Bill Browder, an investor in Russia who became a fierce critic of Putin, told CNN in 2018. "The wealth stems from extortion and massive theft of state funds. "
Browder testified before the US Senate in 2017 that he estimated the Russian leader's fortune to be around $200 billion in assets that would make him one of the richest people on the planet.
One theory about Putin's wealth suggests that he has armed the Russian oligarchs, threatening them with arrest and worse, unless they give him cash or stock in their companies.
However, tracking down his fortune has proven nearly impossible. Forbes magazine even said figuring out Putin's net worth is the most elusive puzzle in the wealth hunt.
"But just because the general public doesn't have a good understanding of where Putin's assets are hiding, we can assume that US and EU intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been tracking his assets for years," said Ross S. Delston, an anti-laundering expert. money.
"If the US government along with the EU is serious about pursuing its assets, there will be a lot of targets to be achieved," Delston said. "They will be all over the world ... within the boundaries of the EU and the US, of course."
But will the freezing of Putin's assets prevent him from continuing to attack Ukraine? Almost certainly not.
"We're not talking about stopping anything," Delston said. "We talked about punishing him."
The sanctions imposed on Putin do not mean they will be in vain. However, they may only reduce Putin's total wealth but they undermine his credibility on the world stage.
In stressing how rarely the United States personally targets heads of state with sanctions, the US Treasury said on Friday that: "President Putin joins a very small group that includes despots like Kim Jong Un, Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Bashar al-Asad."
However, Delston said the real sting of sanctions would not hurt Putin.
"People with high net worth tend to be tied to their assets, even though they have a lot of reserves."
