‘Sanctions should be more nuanced’: Vladimir Ashurkov on Russia, Ukraine, and Navalny (Part 1/4)

For most of his life, Vladimir Ashurkov was focused on pursuing the lucrative career in finance that he had built for himself in Russia. Educated at one of Moscow’s best universities, before studying for an MBA at the Wharton Business School, Ashurkov went on to work for some of the country’s biggest financial institutions. By 2006, he was the Director of Group Portfolio Management at Alfa Group, one of the largest Russian private investment holdings. However, his life took a dramatic turn in 2009, when he started to read blog posts written by a young lawyer called Alexei Navalny.

“Navalny was investigating cases of corruption in large, Russian, state-owned companies,” Ashurkov recalled. “His approach resonated with me – many people were speaking about corruption in Russia, but he was trying to do something about it. He was launching lawsuits, making complaints to government agencies, and he was writing about it with a degree of humour and self-irony that was quite appealing.”

Given his career, Ashurkov had large amounts of experience in both “finance and corporate governance” and therefore offered to help Navalny in his spare time. They began working together, and in 2012, Ashurkov became Director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, an NGO founded by Navalny that investigates and exposes corruption amongst high-ranking Russian officials.

Ashurkov was responsible for many things, including fundraising and crowdfunding for the NGO’s campaigns. Initially, he was able to pursue this volunteering work at the same time as carrying on with his day-job at Alfa Group. “My employers were broadly supportive, but they told me that we need to deal with the authorities on a daily basis, so if there are problems, then we’ll have to part ways.”

The mood in Moscow began to change at the beginning of 2012. “There was a lot of agitation in Russian politics,” Ashurkov said. In February that year, and with Navalny leading the charge, over 100,000 people protested on the streets of Moscow demanding democratic changes. Unsurprisingly, the authorities started to take a more stringent position on opposition groups and cracked down on dissent. Ashurkov, who by this point was widely considered to be one of Navalny’s closest associates, was forced out of his corporate job.

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‘Sanctions should be more nuanced’: Vladimir Ashurkov on Russia, Ukraine, and Navalny (Part 2/4)

For a couple of years until 2014, Ashurkov focused full-time on his political activism and helped run Navalny’s Moscow mayoral bid. But after Russia’s annexation of the Crimea in in February 2014, the atmosphere deteriorated further. “Navalny was put under house arrest. I noticed increased surveillance following me. I thought I’d sit out this difficult period somewhere else, so I went to London,” Ashurkov told Disruption Banking.

Shortly after his arrival in London, Russian prosecutors opened a criminal case against Ashurkov. The authorities alleged that he had stolen campaign funds from Navalny’s mayoral bid. Ashurkov’s partner, Alexandrina Markvo, was also accused of embezzlement in connection with a Moscow book festival. They both claimed political asylum in London.

“The case alleged that I stole money from Navalny’s campaign,” Ashurkov said. “It’s ironic because Navalny himself says nothing was stolen, and we have continued working together and being friends. No witnesses were found – we had people who had donated money to the campaign, and none of them complained that the money was used inappropriately. It was a politically motivated case.”

“But it meant that if I went back to Russia, I would end up in jail. You know, Russia is not exactly a rule of law country. I would likely have ended up with a long prison term. So, I decided to stay in the UK,” he added.

In the decade since then, Ashurkov has continued to work closely with Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Foundation. The NGO has been particularly busy since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine last year. After all, as their website says, “corruption kills […] Putin and his circle have done everything to stay in power – and steal, and steal, and steal some more. High on their own supply, they started a devastating war.”

The Anti-Corruption Foundation has advocated for sanctions against those involved with human rights abuses “for years,” Ashurkov said. However, he has his criticisms about the way in which Western powers have imposed sanctions on Russian oligarchs.

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‘Sanctions should be more nuanced’: Vladimir Ashurkov on Russia, Ukraine, and Navalny (Part 3/4)

Ashurkov told Disruption Banking that “we don’t live in a world where there is a silver bullet, a single set of measures that will put an immediate end to war and bring democratic change in Russia.” He noted that sanctions have previously been used on “smaller adversaries of the Western order, such as Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela, and haven’t worked.”

As hedge fund manager Bill Browder also argued in an interview with Disruption Banking, Ashurkov believes that sanctions could have worked as a deterrent had they been used at an earlier date, but “we only saw a trickle, even after the annexation of Crimea and meddling in eastern Ukraine.”

Ashurkov also thinks that “sanctions have become a one-way ticket, which isn’t really effective […] if you want to use sanctions as an instrument of coercion, and behaviour change, you need to be much more nuanced in how they apply.” For example, since being sanctioned, Oleg Tinkov, the founder of Russian fintech Tinkoff has sold off all his Russian assets, condemned Putin’s invasion as “insane,” denounced Putin personally, and renounced his Russian citizenship – but is still under sanctions.

“What do you want people to do?” Ashurkov asked. “I think the sanction policy has to be much more nuanced and people should think about it more.” He also argued that Western countries should relax restrictions on Russians obtaining visas for travel and unblock Russian debit and credit cards so holders can spend their money abroad.

“The West should encourage money of Russian origin to be spent outside of Russia to deplete the Russian state of resources – it’s a form of capital flight, but the West is encouraging the opposite. The same goes for encouraging Russians to get out of Russia: it should become easier to get Western visas,” Ashurkov said. “The same goes for so-called oligarchs. It would be better to recruit them to be part of the Western front against the war and against Putin, especially as they have resources. Shutting down access to the Western world and to the Western financial system just pushes them back towards the Russian regime.”

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‘Sanctions should be more nuanced’: Vladimir Ashurkov on Russia, Ukraine, and Navalny (Part 4/4)

We couldn’t end the interview without discussing the concerning news emanating from Moscow about the health of Ashurkov’s friend Alexei Navalny. There have been reports that his health is declining. Minutes before we spoke to Ashurkov, news broke that Russia is investigating “absurd” terrorism charges against Navalny – potentially meaning he faces life in prison.

Ashurkov said that he and the Anti-Corruption Foundation remain in contact with Navalny, but that they receive only a “trickle of information” about his health and wellbeing. He believes that Navalny “keeps good spirits and, even from jail, continues to send messages against the war and in support of other political prisoners.”

This is even though, in Ashurkov’s words, “Putin is trying to use prison as a form of torture.”

“First of all, by denying him medical help, by denying him food, and by basically torturing him through putting him in a solitary cell or a call with an inmate that has problems with hygiene,” Ashurkov said.

“Navalny is in grave danger.”

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