The EU and its allies must act as equals against Moscow’s oligarchic agents

What do Ruben Vardanyan and Ilan Shor have in common? Both men are post-Soviet oligarchs who have made billions from their connections with the Kremlin. Both are, to varying degrees, subject to restrictions or sanctions imposed by Western governments or their allies. And both were sent by Moscow to foment unrest and then seize power in Armenia and Moldova respectively, in order to maintain Russia’s influence in Eurasia by any means necessary.

Vardanyan and Shor all pose the same threat to Armenia and Moldova’s attempts to build Western liberal democracies, consolidate the rule of law, and move away from Russian-dominated Eurasia and integrate to Europe. However, they are not treated the same way. If we are serious about defending and upholding Western values ​​and norms, we should do so when both are proxies of the Kremlin.

Just consider the facts.

Vardanyan was parachuted by Moscow to become state minister of an unrecognized and illegal Armenian squatter state located on the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan in order to keep it within Russia’s sphere of influence and use it as a launching pad to remove pro-European Armenian Prime Minister Nikol. Pashinyan. Shor is accused of financing 130,000 fraudulent votes in last month’s Moldovan referendum on EU membership, which almost succeeded in tilting the country toward joining the Russian-controlled Eurasian Economic Union.

If the West is serious about countering these Russian-inspired revanchist tendencies and defending free, fair and democratic values, it should treat the two Kremlin agents equally for what they are: Russian-made men on a mission. to destabilize countries seeking to join Europe. This also means that Western media must ensure that they report responsibly – and accurately – on the activities and motivations of these very similar Kremlin-controlled oligarchs.

Yet it seems that certain elements of the media are willing to be fooled by well-oiled public relations operations. Among the two oligarchs and Kremlin agents, PR consultants working for Vardanyan are making a lot of noise and spreading fake news about their client. This broadcast is being broadcast at maximum volume in an effort to undermine COP29, the annual global summit on climate change, which Azerbaijan – where Vardanyan resides in prison, awaiting trial – is set to host.

According to the advertising campaign managed by the expensive American public relations firm Edelman, Vardanyan is a philanthropist and a family man. It may well be that he is both; However, these are not excuses. This crooked oligarch of Armenian descent, made in Russia and sanctioned by Ukraine, has ensured that the money he dumps on others in the Wild West has flowed into the crony capitalism that has dominated the 1990s and again post-Soviet Russia – a model he shares with Shor. Russia’s FSB secret police collected huge amounts of kompromat from the three, allowing them to control them like puppets.

Vardanyan was accused of money laundering on an epic scale, wash 4.6 billion dollars through the famous “Troika Laundromat” centered on the Russian private bank Troika Dialog which he founded and managed by a motley set of 70 offshore shell companies. His interests include a management role at Volga Dnieper, a major Russian military logistics provider – hence his sanction by the Ukrainian government as a party to the Kremlin’s criminal and illegal war.

Complicit in Russia’s illegal war, it is perhaps unsurprising that Vardanyan’s fingerprints are also all over another Kremlin-backed illegal occupation. As “minister of state” of the fake microstate “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic”, Vardanyan became the figurehead of a thirty-year Armenian-Russian military project operating within the sovereign borders of the ‘Azerbaijan. Controlled by Armenia and supported by its military and financial allies, Russia and Iran, this pseudo-republic could hardly have found a more representative leader than an ethnic Armenian supported by the FSB, Russia’s successor to the KGB. When the puppet state finally collapsed last year, Vardanyan was intercepted by Azerbaijani authorities trying to flee the territory.

To any independent observer, the case against Vardanyan appears open and closed. In the interest of full disclosure, I cannot be independent about this man: as a proud British-born Ukrainian patriot, I could not be because he is an agent of the Kremlin who supports a genocidal war aimed at destroying Ukraine and Ukrainian identity.

Vardanyan should be treated and judged the same as Shor, who built his corrupt fortune through the 2014 Moldovan bank fraud scandal, in which funds equivalent to 12% of Moldova’s GDP were transferred to shell companies offshore and disappeared.

So, what measures should Western powers take towards these oligarchs who are part of the Kremlin staff?

First, we should not believe the hype from expensive PR companies, whose job is to twist and hide the truth about them.

Second, the West should act and impose Western sanctions on those whom the Ukrainian government has already sanctioned. If we want to maximize support for our allies in kyiv, we must ensure there are no gaps. If Ukraine believes that a crooked Kremlin agent like Vardanyan poses a threat to its survival, then the West should do the same.

The US, UK and EU have all imposed sanctions on Shor for spearheading Russian interference in Moldovan politics. There is no reason why Vardanyan should be treated differently for spearheading Russian interference in the political affairs of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

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What Vardanyan did to help build the Russian empire through war and military occupation, Shor does through electoral fraud. In the final analysis, the expected result is the same.

The EU and its US ally should take equal and firm action against these oligarchic agents of Moscow – and ignore any PR attempts to mislead us.

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Taras Kuzio is professor of political science at the Mohyla Academy of Kyiv National University, author of Russian Nationalism and the Russo-Ukrainian War (2022) and Crimea 2014-2024: Where Russia’s War Began and Where the Ukraine will win (2024).

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