Summary
Russian billionaires under Western sanctions own chemical companies supplying materials to crucial munitions plants for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, according to a Reuters investigation.
Railway and tax data show firms tied to Roman Abramovich, Andrey Melnichenko, and others provided chemicals like nitric acid and ammonium nitrate used in explosives manufacturing.
These companies, which mostly produce fertilizers exempt from sanctions, highlight loopholes in Western policies.
Experts suggest stricter measures, though concerns remain about global food security impacts.
The findings underscore challenges in curbing Russia’s military production amid ongoing conflict.
As long as those two people are making money, it’s worth any amount of suffering and death for Russians, Ukrainians and everyone else that gets caught up in the war 😀
Yes, now do it for war grifters in the USA.
Guess what, I don’t like billionaires in any country. But this article was specifically about Russia so that’s what I commented on. For completeness, I could add a list here of other things I don’t like:
- Russian billionaires
- American billionaires
- People who change the topic to “USA bad” for seemingly no reason
- Cooked fruits (with a few exceptions)
- Airports
- Being ignored by my friends
- Hitting an elbow or knee very lightly on something but it casting a disproportionate amount of pain
Ok! “All war profiteering is bad.”
Now what?
I like your pre-emptive self-upvote removal.
This is a bit of a left turn, but I’ve started to note random articles like this when I see them.
This might sound a little tin-foil hat~ish, but I think that some of Ukraine’s intelligence and war efforts are informed by the media. Starting back with the NordStream pipeline sabotage, which happened just after the media began covering how Russia could use the threat of shutting down the pipeline to hold Europe hostage, I’ve noticed that there’s sort of a back and forth. The media will focus on something as being a resource or asset to Russia, and Ukraine will target it. Right now it’s Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ - the merchant marine fleet that only travels between Russian allied countries, so the ships do not have to undergo international inspections. Not only have 3 of those ships recently sank due to weather (They were 50+ year-old river tankers that had undergone substantial modification, being used as transfer vessels to move oil for the military and were operating in the Black Sea - well outside the conditions they were built for due to threat of Ukrainian attack.), but the 4th was a newer vessel operating in conditions it was built for and it sank due to an explosion in its engine room. That last one really complicates some things for Russia - it had vital parts to another ship (a nuclear-powered icebreaker), as well as cranes from their Syrian Port (that they might be losing?) that were going to be repurposed at their Vladivostok Port.
Anyway, I guess all that is to say, I’m sort of expecting to hear within a few weeks that the factories that make these chemicals have been bombed.
I’m starting to think all these oligarchs aren’t on the up-and-up.
I’m really not sure how you can restrict the sales of products like ammonium nitrate. It’s just too essential in farming.
It would probably require an escalation of the war, to the point where (meat) rationing came into effect. There’s probably always going to be loopholes for billionaires though.
