Russian oligarchs head for Israel to evade Western sanctions

Israel has become the favoured destination of Russian oligarchs seeking refuge from Western sanctions, the Times of Israel has reported. As many as fourteen private jets have landed in the occupation state over the past few days in an effort to get around financial penalties imposed in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This is, apparently, an unusual number of rented private jets flying from Russia to Israel, which the Israeli paper said is a possible indication that some wealthy Russians are looking at ways to slip around sanctions imposed by the West to punish Moscow for the attack.

Tracking data showed that the planes made trips from Turkey to Moscow and St. Petersburg, then from there to Israel’s capital, Tel Aviv. Those on board are said to be Russian oligarchs slapped with sanctions. There is speculation that some may have been using the hired private jets to avoid moving their own aircraft and to hide their movements.

Israel has not joined the West in sanctioning Russia and its oligarchs, many of whom are of Jewish origin. The occupation state’s founding Zionist ideology makes it an attractive place for people fleeing their country of birth to escape from the law and to evade sanctions.

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Arguably the most well-known among the Russian oligarchs is Roman Abramovich. The now former owner of Chelsea Football Club in the English Premier League was sanctioned by the British government last week. His private jet landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday night, according to Israeli media.

Abramovich, who took up Israeli citizenship in 2018 after failing to extend his UK work visa, has donated almost $102 million to a far-right Israeli settler organisation which displaces Palestinian families from occupied East Jerusalem. His total donations to Israeli causes, however, are said to total more than $500 million. The oligarch has also purchased at least three properties in Israel, one of which is worth $64.5 million.

In a letter earlier this month, several prominent Israeli institutions, including the country’s official Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, as well as several individuals, appealed to the US not to sanction Abramovich. The letter said that imposing sanctions on him would harm Israeli institutions that rely on him for donations. Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan added that Abramovich was the museum’s second-largest private donor, after the late Sheldon Adelson and his widow, Miriam. The Adelsons were the main funders of Donald Trump’s election campaign and are said to have been instrumental in persuading the former US president to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem.

Abramovich’s assets are said to include at least two luxury yachts, one of which is currently off the coast of Italy. Israeli sources claim that the yachts are heading for the settler-colonial state, apparently to ensure that they are not seized.