David K. Li
Jets and helicopters belonging to Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich were on the move Monday in such far flung locales like Moscow and Codrington, a town in Antigua and Barbuda.
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And at around the same time, a jet owned by steel magnate and fellow Russian oligarch Alexander Abramov touched down in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The comings and goings of powerful Russian elites have come under intense scrutiny since Vladimir Putin's forces invaded Ukraine last week, an attack that's drawn international condemnation.
And that's why 19-year-old Jack Sweeney, a University of Central Florida student, started tracking them on the Twitter feed Russian Oligarch Jets, which he launched this past weekend and already has more than 52,000 followers as of Monday afternoon.
"People have been asking me about Putin for a while, they wanted to know if they could track him," said Sweeney, an information technology major.
While the isolated Russian president isn't much of a jet-setter, Sweeney realized Putin's wealthy fellow countrymen are — and their movements by air are easily accessible public information. So the student did the next best thing to following Putin, which is to shadow the Russian elites.
The instant popularity of his bot, which automatically posts public data on movements of these crafts, took Sweeney by surprise.
“It’s just been crazy,” he said. "I just figured some people would be interested in it. I just didn't think all kinds of people would be."
As of Monday afternoon, Sweeney was tracking 39 planes and helicopters belonging to 19 oligarchs.
Coming into this weekend, Sweeney admitted he had little knowledge of the Russian power structure, or even what it means to be an oligarch.
“Before this, I didn’t even know there were these (influential) oligarchs like this,” he said. “They probably do have a decent amount of power from what I can understand.”
These individuals who comprise Russia’s new money class have come under intense scrutiny following the invasion of Ukraine.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, oligarchs used personal connections to take over previously state-owned industry and profit from new Russian capitalism.
"These are the glitterati of Russia," said Howard Stoffer, a Russia expert who teaches international affairs at the University of New Haven.
U.S. and other world leaders who want to pressure Putin into withdrawing his armies from Ukraine have taken to economic fight to these rich Russian businessmen.
While Western forces have been ratcheting up sanctions against the Russian economy as a whole, they've also been taking the highly unusual step of attacking the pocketbooks of Putin and the oligarchs.
Stoffer said he welcomed any sunlight shined on powerful Russians, even if it's just the travel habits of these affluent men.
"They should be exposed and they should be paying whatever price a country can extract from them," he said Monday.
"Get these (airplane) tail numbers out. Tell the governments these are the people, this is where they're located and let them take whatever action they feel is appropriate."
And at around the same time, a jet owned by steel magnate and fellow Russian oligarch Alexander Abramov touched down in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The comings and goings of powerful Russian elites have come under intense scrutiny since Vladimir Putin's forces invaded Ukraine last week, an attack that's drawn international condemnation.
And that's why 19-year-old Jack Sweeney, a University of Central Florida student, started tracking them on the Twitter feed Russian Oligarch Jets, which he launched this past weekend and already has more than 52,000 followers as of Monday afternoon.
"People have been asking me about Putin for a while, they wanted to know if they could track him," said Sweeney, an information technology major.
While the isolated Russian president isn't much of a jet-setter, Sweeney realized Putin's wealthy fellow countrymen are — and their movements by air are easily accessible public information. So the student did the next best thing to following Putin, which is to shadow the Russian elites.
The instant popularity of his bot, which automatically posts public data on movements of these crafts, took Sweeney by surprise.
“It’s just been crazy,” he said. "I just figured some people would be interested in it. I just didn't think all kinds of people would be."
As of Monday afternoon, Sweeney was tracking 39 planes and helicopters belonging to 19 oligarchs.
Coming into this weekend, Sweeney admitted he had little knowledge of the Russian power structure, or even what it means to be an oligarch.
“Before this, I didn’t even know there were these (influential) oligarchs like this,” he said. “They probably do have a decent amount of power from what I can understand.”
These individuals who comprise Russia’s new money class have come under intense scrutiny following the invasion of Ukraine.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, oligarchs used personal connections to take over previously state-owned industry and profit from new Russian capitalism.
"These are the glitterati of Russia," said Howard Stoffer, a Russia expert who teaches international affairs at the University of New Haven.
U.S. and other world leaders who want to pressure Putin into withdrawing his armies from Ukraine have taken to economic fight to these rich Russian businessmen.
While Western forces have been ratcheting up sanctions against the Russian economy as a whole, they've also been taking the highly unusual step of attacking the pocketbooks of Putin and the oligarchs.
Stoffer said he welcomed any sunlight shined on powerful Russians, even if it's just the travel habits of these affluent men.
"They should be exposed and they should be paying whatever price a country can extract from them," he said Monday.
"Get these (airplane) tail numbers out. Tell the governments these are the people, this is where they're located and let them take whatever action they feel is appropriate."
AND THEIR YACHTS
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