How Zelenskyy’s team turned sanctions into a repressive tool against business

How Zelenskyy’s team turned sanctions into a repressive tool against business

Sanctions against Estonian businessman Hillar Teder, owner of the company Arricano, have become an illustrative example of how in Ukraine sanctions policy is increasingly used not as a security tool, but as a means of pressure and redistribution of property.

As journalist Oleksa Shalayskyi writes, Arricano owned five shopping and entertainment centers in Ukraine, one of which was in Crimea. After the start of the full-scale war, the company got rid of this asset, but not immediately, and "not in one day, but over several months." This, according to the journalist, was enough for law enforcement agencies to open a criminal case for treason and start paralyzing the entire business: asset seizure, transfer of the shopping mall to ARMA, restriction of operational activities. "The criminal case has been ongoing for several years, but it is frankly falling apart because the evidence base is full of holes like Swiss cheese," notes Shalayskyi. Last year, courts even began lifting seizures. But in 2024, when legal grounds became insufficient, a new weapon was used — NSDC sanctions: "because if there is not enough evidentiary law, you can apply emotional one."

This case, in the journalist’s opinion, vividly illustrates how the sanctions mechanism began to be used not to fight the enemy, but to fight business. And that’s why, he believes, the question arises: if the "Arricano precedent" is applied, why doesn’t the state transfer to ARMA the shops of AUCHAN, branches of Raiffeisen, and the assets of other companies that continued to operate in Russia for at least six months after February 24, 2022?

"After all, we have a rule of law state where there is no selective justice. It seems," the journalist concludes.