The European Union’s latest sanctions package is proof of its drafters’ incompetence. Hundreds of Russian defense industry executives appear on the list with nothing but their names - not even a date of birth. These sanctions will be ineffective, yet people who simply share the same names could run into problems. It would take me - or any other Russian investigative journalist - about 30 seconds to find the date of birth of any head of a Russian military plant. Yet officials in Brussels treat a document as important as a sanctions list as if it were some kind of nonsense. Then again, why am I surprised? At one point the EU put Russian propagandist Mikhail Galustyan on the sanctions list under his stage name rather than his legal name.That’s not to mention the other systemic problems with the EU’s sanctions policy. The most important oligarchs and propagandists closest to Putin never make the list. Family members of the political elite - who benefit from corrupt schemes and act as nominal holders of assets, including in Europe - have been shielded from the impact. It seems the only thing the EU is actually good at is imposing visa restrictions on Russian citizens. This is collective punishment - the result of Brussels’ inability to implement properly targeted individual sanctions.

Let me say what troubles me about this position. First, the inconsistency. From the very beginning of the war in Ukraine, my colleagues and I urged that sanctions be extended to the family members of the Russian political elite. This would have been even more effective than sanctioning the officials themselves: children and spouses can exert pressure on the regime’s beneficiaries. Yet the European Union could not bring itself to adopt such a policy. “Children are not responsible for their fathers’ actions,” we were told. Yet for some reason all Russians are held accountable for the actions of a government they have no power to influence: elections in Russia are rigged, protests are brutally suppressed, and opponents of the regime are imprisoned or killed. As a result, sanctions do not even apply to relatives who act as nominal asset holders and beneficiaries of criminal schemes involving officials close to Putin — for example, Varvara Skoch (Manturova), the daughter of sanctioned MP Andrei Skoch and the daughter-in-law of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, who is responsible for the entire military industry. Second, the unfairness. Visa restrictions are imposed only on poor Russians. The wealthy hold second citizenships acquired with money gained through corruption. The aforementioned Varvara Skoch holds a passport from Cyprus, an EU country. I recently published an investigation showing that the daughter-in-law of Russian Deputy Defence Minister Leonid Gornin had also acquired a second citizenship through real estate investment. It is the poor, not the rich, who suffer most from the restrictions placed on Russians. Take, for example, Alexei Zolotarev, a major contractor for the Ministry of Defence — I investigated him as well. He bought himself Maltese citizenship and a villa in France. He vacations in Courchevel while the war is ongoing. Meanwhile, Russians who do not hold a second passport are prohibited from crossing the borders of a number of EU countries. Thirdly, the ineffectiveness. One of the arguments for the new visa restrictions on Russians is security. However, Russian intelligence agencies have long used agents holding passports not from Russia, but from EU countries, Ukraine or the Balkans — who are entitled to visa-free entry into the Schengen Area — to carry out acts of sabotage.

Перед вами Александра Сергиенко — супруга одного из ключевых российских олигархов Искандара Махмудова. Супруге Махмудова шенгенские визы не нужны, у неё паспорт Кипра. А в собственности — замок и вилла во Франции. Махмудов зарабатывает и на военном производстве, получил он в собственность и несколько предприятий на оккупированных территориях. Вся его семья живёт во Франции и Монако с паспортами ЕС.