Why we can longer allow Oligarchs to live among us

It is long past time that we stop pretending that Putin’s Russian Federation is a normal country that we can live with in peace. Putin is a thug and a criminal and must be shunned.

His cronies and enablers “the oligarchs,” should be rounded up and sent back to live in Russia.  If they have foreign passports or resident visas they should be revoked. Their foreign assets should be seized and held in trust for the people of Ukraine.

To be fair, we should have realized this long ago, but we hoped we were wrong or that things would change.  We also were tired of the cost and psychological burden of facing another cold war. Memo to self: dictators don’t make good neighbors.

I trust that the Taiwanese people are paying close attention. (Not that President Xi is a Putin-level war lord.)

For those of you who doubt me, here are some recommended readings.

• Google “Moscow apartment bombings” to gain some insight into Putin’s origin story.
• “How Putin’s Oligarchs Bought London” by Patrick Radden Keefe in the March 17, 2022 edition of the New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/28/how-putins-oligarchs-bought-london)
• Google “Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl ring”
• “The Result of 20 Years of Putin: Russia as a Mafia State” by Leonid Nevzlin (https://imrussia.org/en/opinions/3067-the-result-of-20-years-of-putin-russia-as-a-mafia-state)