The sanctions imposed on Putin’s Russia have had a sobering effect on many leaders in Russia, but so far have not led to the abandonment of military aggression against Ukraine.
These sanctions have not yet hit the most important resource for financing aggression – foreign exchange earnings from the supply of energy resources and other raw materials to the European Union, primarily payments for natural gas supplies. Now this money is landing in Kharkiv and Mariupol in the form of bombs and missiles.
We, the Russian Anti-War Committee, are aware of the difficulties for some European countries to completely abandon Russian oil and gas supplies in a short time. But we are convinced of the need to take a new step, limiting the financial capacity of the Putin regime to finance military aggression. We urge Western countries to direct payments for contracted Russian oil and gas supplies to Russian bank accounts in EU member states that are already under sanctions and cannot be used to pay for Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. Ultimately, permissions for how to use these should be determined by the EU member states following consultations with the legitimate government of Ukraine.
Members of the Russian Anti-War Committee:
- Sergey Aleksashenko, economist
- Evgeny Chichvarkin, entrepreneur
- Konstantin Chumakov, scientist
- Dmitry Gudkov, politician
- Sergei Guriev, economist
- Vladimir Kara-Murza, politician, historian
- Garry Kasparov, politician, 13th world chess champion
- Mikhail Kasyanov, former Prime Minister of Russia
- Mikhail Khodorkovsky, philanthropist, former political prisoner
- Evgeny Kiselev, journalist
- Evgeny Kunin, biologist
- Yulia Latynina, writer, journalist
- Elena Lukyanova, lawyer
- Yuri Pivovarov, historian, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Viktor Shenderovich, writer
- Lyubov Sobol, politician
- Boris Zimin, entrepreneur