West Targets Putin's Senior Aides
Updated: 7:54pm UK, Monday 17 March 2014
By Sam Kiley, Foreign Affairs Editor, Moscow
He had roared out his displeasure: There would be "severe costs" over Russia's invasion of the Crimea.
Then America's president bleated.
Meanwhile in Europe foreign ministers did what they often do at a time of crisis, they reached for the paperwork.
The result of this two-pronged attack must have left the targets of their displeasure, 11 named by Russia and 21 as yet unnamed by Brussels, feeling as if they had been savaged by a teddy.
While Russian troops armed with the latest surface-to-surface missiles tore up the earth on the borders with Ukraine, and more were securing the Crimea's widely condemned secession, the West went one up from sending a strongly-worded letter of complaint.
Visa bans and assets seizures are to be imposed by Washington and London. The people picked out for this treatment are close to Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
They include Vladislav Surkov, a senior aide to Putin. Sergey Glazyev is a member of Russian Academy of Science. He's a former minister and a founder of the Rodina Party.
Valentina Matviyenko is the highest-ranking female politician in Russia, the former governor of Saint Petersburg and the current chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation.
Dmitry Rogozin is Russia's deputy Prime Minister. Elena Mizulina is a member of the Duma has been a leading light of efforts to instil "family values", which include campaigning against gay rights.
They are all Putin's political intimates. But few are thought to be holders of vast fortunes in overseas bank accounts.
Rogozin tweeted: "@BarackObama, what should do those who have neither accounts nor property abroad? Or U didn't think about it?)".
Others in the two "hit lists" agreed.
Mr Putin is unlikely to be rattled. Nor will he be, according to Dr Andrei Piontkovsky, a senior fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences, until those much closer to him are hit in their pockets.
"Sanctions should not hit 140 million Russians. They should be targeted at 140 oligarchs. The corrupt businessmen who have profited from Putin's rule should he hit so that they create friction for him, they start asking what the hell he is up to and telling him to stop," he said.
This may yet happen. But it's puzzling as to why it was that Mr Putin's wealthiest intimates were sanctioned before those who are mere political functionaries of the Kremlin, men and women who reflect and carry out his views, not who shape them.
It may be that the oligarchs are too big to bash. After all the City thrives on Russian capital, London's estate agents suckle at their gilded cashpoints and public schools do a passable job at turning their offspring into acceptable Sloanes.
But one should, perhaps, give Washington and Brussels some credit for a little wisdom.
The West's relationship with Russia is being reset, reluctantly. If it must be done, though, Foreign Secretary William Hague hinted as much, then it will take time.
He said after the council of ministers meeting that Europe had begun to rethink its dependency on Russian fuel.
Such moves require finding new markets and delivery systems. The US has yet to finish building its natural gas export terminal, for example.
Other economic shifts will be less perceptible. Europe will want to keep Russia as an export market - but restrict its access to strategic technologies.
Economic integration has not limited Russian aggression, it has enabled it. Unpicking that conundrum without starting a war is going to take some doing.
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