During a hearing at the European Parliament organised by the EPP Group on Tuesday 10 April on the theme of "Russian Trojan horses in the EU: populism, money and fake news", several Russia experts said the EU should attack Russia's purse-strings.
"The Kremlin's most powerful tool is dirty money to finance and corrupt. That is where the West has a margin of manoeuvre", said Alina Polyakova, a researcher at the Brookings Institution. "The people close to Putin, the oligarchs stay in power because of this. This dirty money can be targeted", she added, stating that they invested in the West – for example, in property. "Action can be taken to block corrupt Russians. Their bank accounts and assets can be frozen, and more transparency can be demanded on their financial transactions", she said, stating that such measures were currently being studied in the UK.
"Russian representatives and oligarchs cannot have their cake and eat it. They want to undermine Western rules while also benefitting from them", Brian Whitmore from the Centre for European Policy Analysis added. He called for the sale of IT equipment to Russia to be stopped as Russia is accused of numerous cyberattacks. "This will involve costs, but it is our democratic institutions that are at stake", he said.
Ilya Zaslavskiy, a researcher at Chatham House, went even further. "Certain Russian funds need to be refused. This may seem to be a big sacrifice but it will avoid the price being paid later", he said. In Zaslavskiy's view, these funds have "a latent influence. It is Russian infiltration in a devious way. It can filter everywhere, in policy, in the business world...". He mentioned the acquisition of strategic infrastructure in Europe by Russians, or offshore accounts "which are abused by Russians". "If Russia continues on its path, Westerners will have to block Putin's money, which comes from Russian gas and oil", as they have for long done with Iran due to its nuclear programme, he added. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)