Superyachts, sporting teams and private jets. These are some of the Russian oligarch's favourite things - and the West is coming after them.
World leaders have set their sights on Russia's "elite", seeking to punish those who enable or benefit from Russia's President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden singled them out in his State of the Union address on 1 March and said he was coming for their "ill-begotten gains".
But who are these oligarchs, how did they amass their wealth, and could they really put enough pressure on Mr Putin to recoil from waging a war?
How the oligarchy gained their wealth
A few years after Mikhail Gorbachev became head of the Communist Party in 1985, he pushed through modest reforms to create a semi-free market system, allowing some people to start their own small businesses.
Former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev. Credit: Bryn Colton/Getty Images
In 1995, Mr Yeltsin, and a financially-strained government, struck a deal for loans from Kremlin-favoured banks looking to raise funds for his upcoming reelection campaign, according to a in the peer-reviewed journal Post-Soviet Affairs.
Then-US President Bill Clinton with Boris Yeltsin at a news conference in New York in 1995. Credit: Wally McNamee/Corbis via Getty Images
The government then intentionally defaulted on their loans, allowing the select tycoons to auction off their share - usually to themselves or other well-connected friends - for prices well under market value.
Competition in the sale was kept to a minimum through careful rigging of the auctions, with officials sometimes blaming paperwork issues and even closing airports to keep other bidders out, the 2010 paper reports.
Suddenly, the men who became wealthy on the semi-open market became oligarchs. The scheme dubbed ‘loans for shares’ by the Russian government is perceived as fraudulent and unfair, and blamed for widening the wealth gap at a time when many people in Russia were impoverished.
To this day, much of the Russian populace revile the minted men, said Dr Stephen Fortescue, an associate professor from the University of New South Wales who has researched Russia’s oligarchs.
“It's pretty safe to say that the Russian people don't like them. The 1990s was a very searing experience for the Russian people and they see oligarchs as part of the problem, having this ‘unearned income’, ” he said.
One of the sanctioned oligarchs, Roman Abramovich, who is now worth $9.6 billion, started in business during the Gorbachev years selling rubber ducks from his apartment. Later, he and fellow oligarch, Boris Berezovsky bought oil firm Sibneft. Mr Abramovich was just 29 at the time.
Mr Abramovich and Mr Berezovsky . A year later, its estimated market value had more than doubled to $230 million.
The Chateau de la Croe, on the French Riviera, is owned by Roman Abramovich. Credit: Dimitar Stoyanov, Bird.bg
He bought London's Chelsea Football Club in 2003, ploughing billions of pounds into the club, which led to unprecedented on-field success. Under his ownership, the team has won the Premier League five times and two Champions League titles, the latest coming last season. Mr Abramovich sold Sibneft back to the Russian government a decade later in 2005 for about $13.2 billion.
Roman Abramovich congratulates Marcos Alonso and his players after the UEFA Champions League Final between Manchester City and Chelsea FC at Estadio do Dragao in 2021. Credit: Visionhaus/Getty Images
Meanwhile, Alisher Usmanov, 68, who used to own a third of London's Arsenal Football Club, got rich selling plastic bags before buying into the metal and mining industry through a series of acquisitions - not the 'loans for shares' scheme.
The oligarchs had a sharp eye for an opportunity, Dr Darius von Guttner, principal research fellow specialising in East Central European history at the University of Melbourne told The Feed.
“Those people had a business opportunity and they exploited that possibility to acquire assets. Assets that were worth perhaps far more than the prices that they paid to the government treasury,” Dr Guttner said.
But the definition of the oligarch today doesn't just include the "Yeltsin period", with Mr Putin helping other business people with personal relations become oligarchs - even his judo teacher.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R), businessmen and billionaires: Arkady Rotenberg (C), Vasily Anisimov (L) attend judo training in Sochi, Russiin 2019. Credit: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
Spending and stashing their money
It's no secret Russian oligarchs love a superyacht. And social media users have created bingo cards on "Yacht Watch" as sanctions threaten the mega-yachts of the mega-rich.
These yachts are so well-known, many of them have Wikipedia pages of their own.
Besides the yachts docked in Barcelona and Monaco, the oligarch crowd boasts glitzy French villas and a heavy smattering of properties across the globe. Recently, around 100 private planes with ties to Russia were grounded by the US under sanctions.
Many oligarchs have based themselves in exclusive enclaves in London and in the South of France, leaving Mr Putin bothered by their fondness of the West.
Without naming anyone in particular, Mr Putin last week condemned "national traitors" who "have villas in Miami or the French Riviera, who cannot make do without foie gras, oysters or gender freedom, as they call it".
"The Russian people will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like an insect in their mouth onto the pavement," he added.
For Mr Abramovich, he has over 70 homes, buildings and pieces of land, most of which are in the UK and all upward of a million dollars, according to a international consortium of investigative centres, media and journalists. He also has a private jet and a couple of helicopters too.
A general view of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich's yacht named "Solaris" is seen docked in Bodrum in Turkey. Source: Anadolu / Anadolu Agency/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Mr Usmanov owns a private jet estimated to be around half a billion dollars, as well as eight mansions in Germany, Italy, Croatia, and of course, England.
Russian billionaire and businessman Alisher Usmanov in 2019. Credit: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
As much as 60 per cent of Russia's wealth could exist offshore, according to a, a non-profit organisation dedicated to conducting economic research.
How do oligarchs exert their power?
The word oligarch is based on a Greek word that means 'few to rule.'
Without holding senior government positions, the oligarchs have a hold on a country's economy, and are able to lobby for the way the government stimulates certain sectors, Dr von Guttner said.
How oligarchs exert power is best answered by splitting it up into two periods: the Yeltsin period and later the Putin period.
The Yeltsin period in the 1990s is a matter of great debate, with different commentators arguing a different level of influence, said Dr Fortescue.
When the oligarchs took over important parts of the Russian economy, "through good luck or good management" they managed to turn floundering businesses into big players on the world trade stage.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) greets billionaire and businessman Alisher Usmanov (R) during the State Awards Ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow in 2018. Credit: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
Oligarchs in the Yeltsin period also used some of their money to buy into the media, spouting support to his government, disparaging opponents and leaving Russia's 1996 election marred, he added.
But whatever the relationships between oligarchs and the Russian government were, it changed very quickly when Mr Putin became president in 2000.
What relationship does Vladimir Putin have with the oligarchs?
Mr Putin promised to rein in Russia's oligarchs during his first presidential campaign - and he didn't take long to start.
By 2003, Mr Putin had arrested and jailed the oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Mr Khodorkovsky was officially charged with financial crimes, but he was also funding Mr Putin’s opposition parties.
"[Mr Putin] made it pretty clear from very early on that oligarchs, in that sense of the word, were in the past. A few of them were forced out of the country, and Khodorkovsky ended up in prison," Dr Fortescue said.
"The rest of them that survived, have been allowed to run their businesses and to lobby their own business interests but there's not been any hint that they might run the country or that they could just simply get what they wanted."
It was kind of an informal deal - if you stay out of politics, the Kremlin wouldn't question their gains, said Dr von Darius.
Several countries and the European Union have now sanctioned Russia's oligarchs and their families, alongside larger sanctions on industries, citing relationships with Mr Putin or support for the Kremlin.
Mr Abramovich put the Chelsea football team up for sale in early March with proceeds from the sale to go to victims of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, before he was slapped with sanctions a week later. The United Kingdom, the EU, US and Australia all have sanctions against him now.
After the move, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was “clear evidence” the oligarchs were connected to “the Putin regime”.
Oleg Deripaska is another billionaire who was sanctioned by the US for his association with Mr Putin. He is also sanctioned by Australia, where he has a stake in a Queensland alumina refinery run by Rio Tinto.
But, Dr Fortescue believes some of the post-Soviet collapse oligarchs aren't even in Mr Putin's so-called inner circle.
"The argument that was being put forward was that these guys will be upset because it's affecting their personal situation and their businesses, and they'll put pressure on Putin to change his approach.
"I don't think Deripaska is close to Putin. I don't think Abramovich is close to Putin. Yeah, sure they have the right of access to him because they run huge businesses. But that's different from saying that they've got some sort of personal relationship with him."
Dr Fortescue doesn't strike out the possibility of close ties but says he hasn't seen any evidence of it.
Are the oligarchs against the invasion?
On February 25, Elizaveta Peskova, the 24-year-old daughter of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, posted a black square on her Instagram story– with the caption “No to war!” She is said to have deleted it shortly after. Meanwhile, her father defended arrests against those rallying against the invasion.
Around the same time, Sofia Abramovich, the daughter of the sanctioned Roman Abramovich, shared a social media post saying Mr Putin’s actions were not supported by the majority of Russians.
The 26-year-old who has lived and studied in London, wrote: “The biggest and most successful lie of Kremlin’s propaganda is that most Russians stand with Putin.”
Where the oligarchs stand on the invasion, or even Mr Putin is still hard to say, Dr von Guttner said.
"Do we really see them renouncing the links to Mother Russia? Are they really saying that this is a crime?"
