‘Architect’ of Russia sanctions claims his Western bank accounts were shut down
Sergey Guriev, the Russian-born economist who advised the West on sanctions that could have the greatest impact on his home nation, admitted on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday that he has suffered from some of the measures. Three of his own bank accounts have been closed, he revealed.
Last week, Guriev was accused of causing “friendly fire” through the restrictions, which, according to critics, do little to undermine the power of Russian President Vladimir Putin and instead hurt his opponents. Guriev is member of the International Working Group on Russian Sanctions, also known as the Yermak-McFaul Expert Group, after its co-chairs.
Andrey Yermak heads the office of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, while Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Moscow, is a prominent Western anti-Russian figure. The advisory body has published 15 papers on how Washington and its allies could best target Russia and has assessed the impact of the sanctions.
Guriev’s role in the group was highlighted last week by some Russian anti-government activists and media outlets, including SVTV News, which described him and fellow economist Sergey Aleksashenko as “architects of the sanctions.” Neither of them lives in Russia.
“Now we know why liberals get triggered when asked about blocked bank accounts and other sanctions that hit ordinary people and not Putin. Because the liberals not only invent those sanctions, but also demand ramping them up,” libertarian politician Mikhail Svetov, the publisher of SVTV News, said.
Public outrage directed at the experts online, described by the opposition media outlet Meduza, is partially based on the argument that Western measures such as travel bans and banking service denials mostly affect Russian nationals who oppose the government, particularly those who fled their homeland amid the Ukraine crisis.
Guriev has distanced himself from some of the Yermak-McFaul Group recommendations attributed to him, stating that “due to lack of time, I could not take part in the work on most reports, which is why I did not sign them.” He endorsed five rounds of restrictions, describing their purpose as undermining “the capability of Putin’s military industry,” the Russian budget income, and sanctions avoidance.
SVTV News cited a recent interview that Guriev gave in which he discussed bans on Russian-registered cars imposed by some of its EU neighbors in September.
“They carry microchips in the trunks of those cars. By definition microchips are so small that you can bring enough in a trunk to produce a month-worth supply of missiles,” he told the New Times.
Aleksashenko, who, unlike Guriev, signed a Yermak-McFaul report that proposed banning Russian nationals from traveling to Western nations, said he personally opposed it. Speaking to Meduza, he described his support for the document as “sacrificing ego” to include a better alternative.
