It’s fairly easy to see why the Russian government is trying to apply more scrutiny to the holdings of its public officials, especially those in the financial sector. However, it is also fair to say that the United States is also trying to exert some of the same efforts, and that the current state of this effort will most likely fail.
One of the goals of the Russian effort is to show that public officials are using their positions for monetary gain. In some cases, these officials have been able to create offshore accounts that they may not have otherwise had access to. Additionally, many officials have been caught trying to use their influence to obtain favorable deals. As such, it is becoming increasingly clear that these types of practices will no longer be tolerated.
The U.S. government will undoubtedly push to ensure that these Russian efforts are easily blocked, but for now, the State Department and Treasury Department are focusing their attention on attempts by foreign nations to freeze the assets of U.S. citizens. There have been a number of successes in this regard, but so far, only a handful of Russians have been named as having assets abroad.
While the Internal Revenue Service seems to have a pretty good handle on all of the assets owned by U.S. taxpayers, Russian officials seem to have found ways to skirt their obligations. The U.S. government has long known about these problems, and now it has taken action. However, it appears that the U.S. government cannot seem to stop these officials from using these tactics, even if the law is in place.
Private investigators are probably the best people to look into this issue, as the methods of avoiding U.S. tax laws are quite sophisticated. If you want to find out who these individuals are, then it would be very important to hire a private investigator who has the knowledge and resources to track them down.
At the end of the day, the U.S. government has taken the first steps to making Russian officials pay for their activities abroad. However, we can expect that other countries will follow suit and start doing the same.
In some ways, this action by the U.S. has been inspired by Russian officials’ reluctance to accept responsibility for their actions. Russia continues to deny any knowledge of the affairs of the country’s wealthy. In fact, Russian officials continue to assert that their wealth came to them through “merits” earned in the course of their official duties.
In many ways, this attitude from Russian officials may be a part of the problem. When a person becomes accustomed to living in a state of denial, it can become difficult to accept responsibility for one’s actions. The IRS and other governments should work diligently to help the U.S. reach a consensus that this point.
