On the Money

On the Money: oligarchs, espionage and the overlooked

Pattrick Smellie
Sat, 05 Mar 2022

On the Money: oligarchs, espionage and the overlooked

Russian oligarch and NZ luxury bach-owner Alexander Abramov presses the flesh with Vladimir Putin in 2017. (Image: Getty)

Pattrick Smellie
Sat, 05 Mar 2022

Made manNew Zealand’s lack of an autonomous sanctions regime that would allow economic sanctions to be imposed on, for example, any locally connected Russian oligarchs, was a bit of an embarrassment for the government this week. The Wall Street Journal ran a prominent story about NZ sitting this one out as the rest of the western world scrambled to cripple the Russian economy in response to its war on Ukraine.NZ only appears to have one significant target, steel industry oligarch Alexander Abramov, whose private jet may have bee...

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On the Money: oligarchs, espionage and the overlooked

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