Sanctioned Oligarchs and the Emergence of a New Kind of Global Deviance

Abstract

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine precipitated a swift reversal in Western attitudes toward oligarchic wealth: Russian elites, long embraced by Western institutions, became subjects of rapid sanctioning and deliberate estrangement. Drawing on expert interviews and primary documents, we argue that targeted sanctions against Russian oligarchs created a new form of global deviance. Such deviance is not permanent but contingent on geopolitical priorities; reflects ties to authoritarian power rather than individual wrongdoing; absolves sanctioning bodies of their own complicity with autocrats; is inconsistent across even allied countries; and enforced by private rather than state actors. We conclude that targeted sanctions operate as performative exercises of Western authority that draw moral boundaries and police access to global markets, further entrenching existing geopolitical asymmetries.

Keywords

global elites global deviance political crime sanctions oligarchs authoritarianism political corruption

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