Head of Navalny's FBC Foundation calls on the West to lift sanctions on those russians who publicly deny Putin

On March 14, The Economist published an op-ed by Leonid Volkov, President of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FCF). The column calls on behalf of the FBC to ease sanctions against those who have publicly broken with Putin and transferred a significant portion of their capital to Ukraine.

In his column, Volkov draws attention to the fact that Western sanctions imposed after the outbreak of the war "did not affect Putin's ability to continue" the fighting of his criminal war.

"They have not caused a split in the russian elite or provoked defections. Instead, they are helping to consolidate support for the regime and encouraging those who have faced sanctions to return to russia," Volkov writes.

Now "the only guaranteed way to get out of sanctions is to die," Volkov continues. He proposes to introduce a mechanism for getting out of sanctions, similar to the one that exists in the FBC.

"The approach we propose is based on real experience. In April 2022, we at the FBC published a list of 6,000 people who should be sanctioned. Since then, we have regularly and transparently updated and revised it. Every two weeks we add new people to our lists. But on several occasions, we have also removed them from our lists because they have condemned the war or left their positions in state-owned companies. And although our sanctions, unlike those imposed by Western governments, do not have legal consequences, but are intended to draw attention to and expose those whom we consider to be responsible for Putin's war, many people have taken concrete actions to leave our list by resigning from their positions in state-owned companies or condemning the war," he said.

According to Volkov, if the European authorities used the same approach, hundreds of people would try to take advantage of the opportunity, and this would greatly weaken the Putin regime.

"Although the exact criteria for easing sanctions should be determined by the countries imposing the sanctions, these conditions should clearly include a public severance of ties with the Putin regime and its condemnation, as well as the transfer of a significant part of their wealth to Ukraine as compensation," Volkov said.

Background. As a reminder, the movie about russian politician Alexei Navalny won an Oscar. It won in the Best Documentary category, where the Ukrainian film House of Splinters was nominated.