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• The West has frozen overseas assets of oligarchs to cut off the Kremlin's finances
• Many oligarchs are selling off their assets while others are breaking ties with Moscow
Russian billionaires have lost nearly $80 billion of their wealth after the West ordered sanctions against reigning Russian oligarchs.
A CNBC report highlighted that since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia's 20 richest billionaires had lost about a third of their wealth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Since President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Western governments have frozen overseas assets of oligarchs along with Putin and banned them from traveling.
Yesterday, the Two megayachts got seized — Alisher Usmanov's 500-foot "Dilbar" and Igor Sechin's 280-foot "Amore Velo."
EU placed sanctions on Usmanov on Monday and CNBC reported that he could be on an upcoming U.S. list. According toBloomberg reports, his wealth has fallen by $1.7 billion, to $19.5 billion.
Russia's richest man, Vladamir Potanin, who has not been sanctioned, has seen a loss of less than a quarter of his wealth, down to $25 billion.
UK ministers are calling for the seizure of Russian properties in the U.K. and a new global task force has been created to hunt down and seize assets of Russians under sanction.
Fear sale
Fear of sanctions has led many businesspersons to sell off their assets. CNN reported that Roman Abramovich, whose worth is estimated to be $13.5 billion, announced that he would sell his Chelsea Football Club, which he acquired in 2003. He is also offloading some of his London properties in anticipation of sanctions.
Earlier this week, at least four superyachts owned by Russian billionaires with ties to Putin were spotted moving toward Montenegro and the Maldives, CNBC reported.
This week two prominent Russian business persons with close ties to Putin, Mikhail Fridman, and Oleg Deripaska, broke ranks with the Kremlin and called for an end to Russia's war in Ukraine.