Sanctioning Russia’s oligarchs – with shame

ABSTRACT

When most people hear the word “sanctions,” they think of formal economic and political punishments leveled at rogue regimes, like the US trade embargo against Iran, or the threatened expulsion of Hungary from the European Union. Both kinds of sanctions have been leveled against Russia since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. But the past eight months have also brought a different sanctions strategy to the fore: one aimed at stigmatizing the individuals close to Putin’s regime, in hopes of shattering elite support and encouraging revolt. These sanctions, which have led to the freezing and seizure of Russian oligarchs’ assets in the West, have prompted the first murmurs of public dissent by Russian oligarchs in nearly two decades. The sanctions have consequently been effective in destabilizing Putin’s authority, cracking the façade of control that has previously deterred attempts to topple him. This article explains the sociological dynamics of this strategy, and how stigma can be effective even where legal and economic punishments fail.

KEYWORDS:

• Russia
• Ukraine
• oligarchs
• sanctions
• stigma
• shame
• sociology
• social death
• asset seizures
• asset freezes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Brooke Harrington

Brooke Harrington is a professor of sociology at Dartmouth College. Her research examines the offshore financial system and its impact on the global political economy. Her book on the offshore finances of elites (Capital without Borders, Harvard University Press, 2016) won an “Outstanding Book Award” from the American Sociological Association and an International Research Impact Award from the Academy of Management. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674244771