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The Russian oligarchs have moved a lot of wealth outside Russia, buying substantial assets in the West. This has little to do with tax avoidance in Russia. This is partly a hedge against falling out of favor with Putin and because they want to globally diversify their assets. It’s also because they’ve joined the global elite lifestyle and want to own luxury real estate, yachts, private jets, etc. Because power is so concentrated in Putin, they may not be the most politically powerful oligarchs.
It is estimated that half of Russian oligarch wealth is offshore, so that creates an economic pressure point in response to Putin’s military aggression. Foreign countries are freezing oligarch assets and luxury items.
I’ve personally walked around a neighborhood in London that has so many mansions owned by Russian oligarchs that they call it “Londongrad.” Like oligarch assets worldwide, this is wealth that has been plundered from their societies, in this case the Russian people. London remains the global center of wealth hiding, though the United States is giving the UK a run for that title.
Global wealth is flooding into the United States, especially in luxury real estate. The New York Post did an exposé, complete with maps, on the luxury real estate holdings of Russian oligarchs in New York City. But other asset classes are being used to hold oligarchic wealth, including art, cryptocurrency, and jewelry.
Economic sanctions are a blunt instrument that harm the wider Russian population. As Bernie Sanders and others have pointed out, the Russian people are not our enemies. They are suffering at the hands of Putin and Russia’s oligarchs. As a strategy to put pressure on Putin, who seems immune to influence, targeting the assets of the oligarchs makes tactical sense.
And let’s not forget that the United States has the highest percentage of billionaires in the world — and that all the wealth of the Russian oligarchs that we know of equals one Elon Musk.