Diamonds and divorces: Are the oligarch sanctions working?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2023
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Russia's deputy defence minister, Timur Ivanov, was sanctioned by the EU last October. Forty days before that happened, his wife, the socialite Svetlana Maniovich, divorced him. The Anti-Corruption Foundation, a Russian non-profit organisation, received a trove of emails that seem to suggest this 'pre-emptive' divorce might have been an evasion strategy. So what was really going on?
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Guests:
- Maria Pevchikh, investigator for the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
- Tom Keatinge, Director for the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at RUSI.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips: CNN, ABC News, European Council.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone, this is Jamie from Proparts. Now, it's currently being sponsored by Told |
| 0:04.2 | You So an Audible Original. Told You So is a classic rom-com that trust me, you're |
| 0:09.3 | gonna absolutely love. It's by author Leon Slade who wrote The Rebound, which is a smash |
| 0:15.4 | hit also an Audible. Now not only that, but the lead is played by Bell Powley. Now, what |
| 0:21.4 | more could you want? This is one not to miss. Told You So available to listen now only |
| 0:26.6 | on Audible. Subscription required see audible.co.uk for terms. |
| 0:56.6 | Later, there was a desperate search for survivors. |
| 1:13.6 | Almost 2,000 miles away in Paris, a Russian socialite was having a very different day. |
| 1:23.6 | Our investigation actually starts with this, and I encourage everybody to watch it. We |
| 1:28.7 | compared the date of key bumpings of Ukraine, like the destruction of a theater in Marijubl, |
| 1:36.5 | with where Svidlana was and what she was doing. As Ukrainian theater filled with people |
| 1:46.2 | hiding from bombs used as a shelter as it was being destroyed by Russian bombs, she was |
| 1:52.8 | in a very active conversation deciding whether she needed to come pick up her diamond earrings |
| 1:59.4 | like a 2pm or a 2.30pm in Paris. That's how it works. |
| 2:08.8 | Maria Pevczyk is a Russian investigative journalist now living in exile. She's been digging |
| 2:14.9 | into the extraordinary wealth of Svidlana Maniowicz, a Russian it girl, and until very |
| 2:21.8 | recently, the wife of the deputy minister of defence, Timor Ivanov. Ivanov was sanctioned |
| 2:29.6 | last October for his role in aiding the war in Ukraine. And yet, his partner enters EU |
| 2:37.2 | territory almost monthly to enjoy some of the most luxurious shopping on the planet. |
| 2:45.0 | How is that possible? |
| 2:47.5 | If you were one of these individuals who found yourself on the sanctions list, then you probably |
| 2:51.9 | had a playbook ready to go in order to deal with what you pretty much thought was in |
... |
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