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Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
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Feb 24 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
Scenes from the pro-Ukrainian protest in London right now, outside Whitehall—many of the signs highlighting the UK’s role in protecting dirty Russian money: Image
One sign listing all of the key Russian oligarchs the UK is yet to sanction: Deripaska, Usmanov, Abramovich, and more. Image
“Support Ukraine: target Russia’s oligarchs. Seize their UK-based assets today!” Image
“Math lesson for Boris:

Ukrainian Lives > Russian Money

#TakeTheirMansions” Image
One sign from @ANTAC_ua highlighting Russian oligarch money in the U.K. and #BlockPutinWallets: Image
Flags of all sorts: Ukrainian, Belarusian, Georgian, EU, UK—and a sign that says “We’re Russians. We’re ashamed. We don’t support it.” ImageImageImageImage
Some of the more memorably vulgar signs at today’s pro-Ukraine protest in London: ImageImage

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More from @cjcmichel

Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
Feb 27
Excellent.

But: This absolutely has to be paired with ending anonymity in real estate, private equity, hedge funds, and the art market.

And we have to end the role of Western—especially US and UK—lawyers in enabling kleptocracy.
A task force is not enough. Nor is simply targeting Russian assets.

The threats of kleptocracy do not end in Moscow. They do not end if and when Putin falls.

Putin is but one kleptocratic dictator. Dozens more remain. They must all be prevented from accessing Western markets.
All of this means that the offshoring world has to end. And America has to—has to—lead on this.

If not, another Putin will rise. Fascism, authoritarianism, autocracy—all of it relies on offshoring.

To end Putinism, we have to end offshoring.
Read 4 tweets
Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
Feb 25
Of course all these assets should be seized.

But thanks to a tangle of factors—perpetual secrecy in trusts and shell companies, anti-money laundering loopholes for real estate and private equity, perpetually under-resourced law enforcement—we have no idea where they are.
There’s this notion that all of these oligarchic assets can be seized at the drop of the hat. They can—if we know about them.

But the world of offshoring—with the US at the center—has created such webs of intractable anonymity that unwinding single networks can take *years*.
Which is why I hope—much as I can—that this Russian invasion is an inflection point for the West’s propping up of the global offshore system.

And it might be. We’ve seen early signs (Biden admin leadership, UK economic crime bill, etc). But far too early to tell.
Read 8 tweets
Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
Feb 24
Putin's invasion is such a glaringly obvious strategic blunder, built on top of an entire range of delusions about Ukraine, about the realities of regime change, about what this will mean for Russia following initial invasion.
Putin was obviously a nationalistic conspiracy theorist before the last few months. (Remember when he spouted that the US wanted to steal Siberia? Or that the Panama Papers were actually an attempt to destabilize Russia?)

But this is all qualitatively different. This is insane.
This honestly seems like the best explanation at the moment for Putin’s historic blunder—and one that jibes with his collapse into madman territory.

It’s the march of a personalist dictator, couple with Covid isolation spinning him into unreality.

Read 4 tweets
Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
Feb 24
In addition to unleashing the full barrage of sanctions and seizing oligarchic assets, now begin:

—Fast-tracking organization (and potential membership) between NATO and Sweden/Finland

—Fast-track pro-transparency regulations in real estate, private investments, and art market
—Fast-tracking new anti-money laundering regulations on lawyers and law firms

—Fast-tracking legislation barring former officials from working for autocracies

—Significant increase in law enforcement asset tracing and seizure programs
This chart is from my book, illustrating how Russian (and other) oligarchs launder their wealth in the West.

Clamp down on every one of these industries, across the board. Force transparency. End anonymity. And consider sanctioning those Westerners who refuse to comply.
Read 4 tweets
Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
Feb 22
It’s time to see Putin’s Russia for what it’s long been: a European empire that never fully decolonized—and dedicated to revanchism, no matter the cost.

My latest for @newrepublic: newrepublic.com/article/165448…
One thing is clear:

Putin’s monomania about controlling Ukraine stems mainly from pure, unadulterated neo-imperialism—and a desire to reclaim territories the dictator believes belong to Moscow.
Watching this return to outright empire is jarring. (European imperial colonization was supposed to be behind us!)

But there was always one European empire that never fully decolonized—never even came close to it: Russia.

Hence, the disaster now looming for Europe.
Read 9 tweets
Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
Feb 22
Finally reading through Hirsch’s “Empire of Nations,” on the creation of Soviet republics, and one thing is clear: the Bolsheviks had absolutely no idea what they were doing, and looked for any excuse to simply continue as much of tsarist-era colonization as possible. Image
Pre-1917, the Bolsheviks were talking all about the exploitative nature of colonization.

And then they came to power—and realized how maintaining Moscow’s setter-colonial empire would be to their benefit. Image
“Between 1919 and 1921, the Bolsheviks used military force, intrigue, and diplomatic measures to… exert control over the newly independent states of the former Russian empire…. In many regions, though, the Bolsheviks had no indigenous support whatsoever.” Image
Read 4 tweets

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