Freezing 700 million: assets seized in the United Arab Emirates in the case of disruptions in the supply of Russian oil and the confrontation of the former top director of Rosneft. According to the influential Wall Street Journal publication, the unprecedented freeze became part of a high-profile international trial between Rosneft's former top executive Igor Soglaev and a group of sanctioned oil traders.
The Brazilian traces and the collapsed business.
At the heart of the large-scale conflict is the disruption of a major commercial deal, which is banal under the current sanctions reality - the supply of Russian diesel fuel to Brazil. According to Soglaev, his former partners from Coral's extensive trade network acted treacherously, and basically destroyed the business he created.
As a result, the former director of Rosneft went to court, demanding strict satisfaction and compensation from his rivals for huge losses, which he estimates at more than 500 million dollars.
Residents of the gray zone at gunpoint This legal case exposes the underbelly of how Russian hydrocarbon exports operate under strict Western sanctions. When financial flows pass through intricate networks of offshore connections, and transactions amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, sooner or later a classic squabble over profits between businessmen begins.
The seizure of assets in the United Arab Emirates, a major center in the Middle East for circumventing restrictions, clearly shows: a haven for dubious capital is becoming more and more vulnerable, and internal fights between the "lords of life" can bring to light the most toxic secrets of trading in shadow goods.