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The EU and its US ally ought to take equal and difficult motion in opposition to these oligarch brokers of Moscow – and ignore any PR efforts to hoodwink us in any other case.
What do Ruben Vardanyan and Ilan Shor have in frequent? Each males are post-Soviet oligarchs who made their billions by way of Kremlin ties. Each are, by various levels, beneath restrictions or sanctions imposed by the western governments or their allies. And each have been dispatched by Moscow to ferment unrest after which take energy in Armenia and Moldova respectively, to take care of Russia’s affect in Euroasia by any means vital.
Vardanyan and Shor all symbolize the identical risk to Armenia and Moldova’s makes an attempt to construct western liberal democracies, entrench the rule of legislation, and combine away from Russian-dominated Eurasia into Europe. But they aren’t being handled the identical. If we’re critical about defending and upholding western values and norms, they need to be when each are Kremlin proxies.
Simply think about the information.
Vardanyan was parachuted in by Moscow to turn out to be State Minister of an unrecognised and unlawful ethnic Armenian squatter state mendacity inside the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan to take care of it inside Russia’s sphere of affect and use it as a launching pad to take away Armenia’s pro-European Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Shor is accused of funding 130,000 fraudulent votes in final month’s Moldovan referendum on EU membership that very almost succeeded in tipping the nation towards becoming a member of the Russian-controlled Eurasian Financial Union as an alternative.
If the West is critical about countering these Russian-inspired revanchist tendencies and upholding free, truthful, and democratic values they need to deal with each Kremlin brokers equally for who they’re: Russian-made males on a mission to destabilise international locations searching for to hitch Europe. It additionally means the western media must be cautious to report responsibly – and precisely – on the actions and motivations of those very comparable Kremlin-controlled oligarchs.
But, it appears, some components of the media are prepared to be hoodwinked by well-oiled public relations operations. Of the 2 oligarchs and Kremlin brokers, PR consultants working for Vardanyan are making loud noise and spreading pretend information about their shopper. That is being broadcast to most quantity in a bid to undermine COP29, the world’s annual local weather change summit, which Azerbaijan – the place Vardanyan resides in jail, awaiting trial – is about to host.
In response to the spin marketing campaign managed by the costly American PR agency Edelman, Vardanyan is a philanthropist and father. He might be each; nevertheless, these aren’t any excuses. This Armenian-born, Russian-made, Ukrainian-sanctioned crooked oligarch made the cash he showers on others within the Wild West sprint to crony capitalism that dominated Nineties and nonetheless post-Soviet Russia – a sample he shares with Shor. Russia’s secret FSB police collected large volumes of kompromat on all three permitting it to manage them as puppets.
Vardanyan has been accused of money-laundering on an epic scale, washing $4.6bn by way of the infamous ‘Troika Laundromat’ centred on the Russian non-public financial institution Troika Dialog which he based and ran by way of a motley assortment of 70 offshore shell firms. His pursuits embrace a prime administration function in Volga Dnieper, a serious Russian navy logistics supplier – therefore his sanctioning by Ukraine’s Authorities as a celebration to the Kremlin’s legal and unlawful struggle.
Complicit in Russia’s unlawful struggle, it’s maybe not shocking that Vardanyan’s fingerprints are additionally throughout yet one more unlawful Kremlin-backed occupation. As ‘State Minister’ of the pretend micro-state ‘Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh’, Vardanyan grew to become the figurehead of a thirty-year Armenian-Russian navy mission working inside Azerbaijan’s sovereign borders. Managed by Armenia, and with assist from its navy and monetary allies Russia and Iran, this pseudo-republic might scarcely have discovered a extra consultant chief than an ethnic Armenian backed by the FSB, Russia’s successor to the KGB. When the puppet state lastly collapsed final yr, Vardanyan was intercepted by the Azerbaijani authorities making an attempt to flee the territory.
To any impartial observer, the case in opposition to Vardanyan seems open and shut. Within the pursuits of full disclosure, I can’t be impartial about this man: As a proud Ukrainian patriot born in Britain, I couldn’t be as he’s a Kremlin agent who helps a genocidal struggle intent on destroying Ukraine and Ukrainian id.
Vardanyan must be handled and judged in the identical means as Shor, who made his corrupt fortune by way of the 2014 Moldovan financial institution fraud scandal that noticed funds equal to 12% of Moldova’s GDP transferred to offshore shell firms and disappeared.
So, what steps ought to western powers take in the direction of these oligarchs on the Kremlin’s employees?
Firstly, we should always not consider the hype of pricy PR firms, whose job it’s to deflect and conceal the reality about them.
Secondly, the West ought to act to put western sanctions on these the federal government of Ukraine have already sanctioned. If we need to maximise assist to our allies in Kyiv, we should always ensure that there aren’t any loopholes. If Ukraine believes a crooked agent of the Kremlin like Vardanyan is a risk to its survival, then so ought to the West.
The US, UK, and EU all have imposed sanctions on Shor for spearheading Russian interference within the politics of Moldova. There is no such thing as a justification for why Vardanyan must be handled any in another way for his spearheading of Russian interference within the political affairs of each Azerbaijan and Armenia.
What Vardanyan has performed to help Russian empire-building by way of struggle and navy occupation, Shor is doing by way of election fraud. Within the remaining evaluation, the meant consequence is similar.
The EU and its US ally ought to take equal and difficult motion in opposition to these oligarch brokers of Moscow – and ignore any PR efforts to hoodwink us in any other case.
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Taras Kuzio is a professor of political science on the Nationwide College of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, creator of Russian Nationalism and the Russian-Ukrainian Battle (2022) and Crimea 2014-2024: The place Russia’s Battle Began and The place Ukraine Will Win (2024).
