Disabling the Enablers of Sanctions Circumvention
OCCRP and its media partners have increasingly set their sights on professional service providers hired by Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities to help them avoid the reach of sanctions. The Rotenberg Files, Cyprus Confidential, and dozens of other investigations have emerged as a result, detailing how lawyers, accountants, and others help their oligarch clients move wealth and avoid scrutiny.
To extract the relevant policy lessons from this body of reporting, OCCRP partnered with RUSI’s Centre for Finance and Security (CFS), a UK-based think tank. The resulting RUSI policy brief, Disabling the Enablers of Sanctions Circumvention, identifies the common services offered by these professionals, and presents a dozen concrete policy recommendations for how Ukraine’s allies can curtail sanction evasion – a crucial effort as Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine draws on.
Speaking about the innovative partnership between OCCRP and RUSI, Alexandra Gillies, Director of the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium, said:
“Investigative journalists have uncovered crucial information about how various entities are working to circumvent Russia sanctions. Meanwhile, experts at RUSI are tracking the wider policy and enforcement trends. Bringing these two strengths together is a powerful combination. This report will make sure that the overall lessons from the investigative reporting reach policymakers and other key stakeholders.”
RUSI Associate Fellow Justyna Gudzowska, who co-authored the Brief, added:
“As new sanctions against Russia yield diminishing returns, it’s time to make these measures more effective by closing loopholes that allow professional enablers to facilitate sanctions evasion and operate with relative impunity. Common-sense adjustments to sanctions and regulatory regimes will reap benefits in the Russia context and further sharpen these tools of economic statecraft. This policy brief not only demonstrates that bringing together groundbreaking investigative work with policy analysis can equip policymakers and practitioners with new ideas to tackle sanctions evasion, but also reflects the enhanced relationship between RUSI's CFS and OCCRP.”
