Kenney calls for crackdown on Russian oligarchs, those with links to Alberta remain unsanctioned
Alberta divesting $159 million in holdings in Russian securities
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is calling on the federal government to spare no effort in freezing the Canadian assets of Russian oligarchs with ties to Vladimir Putin.
Canada has introduced several rounds of economic sanctions against Russia and some of its oligarchs, and has halted export permits to the country.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is now in its sixth day. It has been pounding civilian targets in Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv, and a convoy of tanks and other vehicles continues to threaten the capital, Kyiv.
Attention has been turning to oligarchs with stakes in Canada's natural resource sectors, including a broad call for sanctions from the premier. However, an expert says any measures would be more symbolic than economic.
"I further call on the Government of Canada and our allies around the world to be relentless in freezing the assets of and making life impossible for the billionaire plutocrats of Putin's Russia, his enablers, who have assets here in Canada and all around the world, who have profited from two decades of corruption and aggression," Kenney told Alberta's legislature last week.
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Kenney said the province's investment arm, AIMCo, has $159 million in direct and indirect exposure to Russian securities. The premier added the corporation will begin liquidating those holdings.
He added that Canada should continue to target Russian-based investments and assets in Canada and the province would partner in those efforts where necessary.
Several men on a U.S. Treasury Department list of people with alleged ties to Putin have benefited from business in Alberta. They are not on Canada's list of sanctions.
Roman Abramovich holds a 28.6 per cent stake in Evraz, a steel company based in the United Kingdom with North American offices in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Evraz North America is supplying 58 per cent of the steel used to construct the 1,150-kilometre Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. The federal government says all of that pipe was delivered by the summer of 2021.
The company is also a major supplier for the Coastal GasLink Pipeline and supplied materials for the now-dead Keystone XL project. Kenney has pushed for the resurrection of Keystone and for Canada to build other pipelines to champion Alberta oil over "dictator oil."
Abramovich helped launch Putin's presidency and was a key advisor in the selection of his cabinet.
Last spring, billionaire oligarch Igor Makarov also became the largest shareholder in a Calgary-based natural gas company.
According to filings from Spartan Delta Corp., Makarov's investment group, ARETI Energy S.A., has a 21 per cent stake in the mid-sized company.
"Neither ARETI nor Mr. Makarov are or have ever been the subject of any governmental sanctions," a spokesperson for ARETI wrote in an email to CBC News.
"Mr. Makarov has never been 'close to Putin.'"
Fifty-eight Russian individuals and companies were hit with sanctions last week as part of Canada's retaliatory measures for Russia's invasion.
Neither Abramovich or Makarov are on that list, despite appearing on the U.S. Treasury Department's 2018 "Putin list," which named 210 individuals suspected of ties to the Kremlin. The list has received criticism for deriving some of its unclassified information from a Forbes ranking of wealthy oligarchs.
Global Affairs Canada has not answered specific questions from CBC News about sanctions on resource sector-connected oligarchs.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was asked specifically about Abramovich and Evraz at a news conference on Tuesday.
"We are looking carefully at the holdings of all Russian oligarchs and Russian companies in Canada," she said.
"Everything is on the table."
Freeland hinted that more economic sanctions could be anticipated in the days to come.
Earlier this week, Abramovich was reportedly attempting to help establish peace in the region. However, he tops a list from opposition leader and Putin critic Alexei Navalny of those who should be sanctioned to maximize pain for Putin.
Evraz's two other major stakeholders are Alexander Abramov (19.3 per cent) and Aleksandr Frolov (9.6 per cent). Both men are on the U.S. "Putin list" though the country has not sanctioned any of the three men.
Symbolic, not economic
However, one expert says Canada sanctioning oligarchs like Abramovich and Makarov is unlikely to hold much economic weight but would be a symbolic political decision.
"Right now it's very difficult to put further sanctions on these Russian ownerships," said Yrjö Koskinen, an associate dean at the University of Calgary's Haskayne School of Business.
He explained that the sanctions from Western countries so far have tended to target companies with more than 50 per cent Russian ownership.
"Maybe that going forward should change. Maybe put it at 20 per cent, because those are already very big ownership stakes."
Canada has now banned crude oil imports from Russia. The country has not imported any crude from Russia since 2019; however, it does import refined petroleum products.
Koskinen says while Alberta oil is unlikely to solve Europe's reliance on Russian fuel, Canada's liquefied natural gas could "contribute to energy stability and geopolitical stability going forward," though the necessary infrastructure doesn't exist yet.
Alberta exported about $48 million in goods to Russia last year, down from $89 million in 2020.