Vitaliy Kulyk, political scientist and director of the Center for Civil Society Studies, shared his opinions Espreso TV.“The time when Putin could explain anything to the business community is long gone. Putin and his closest circle now see business merely as a cash cow that must fund all of his whims. And when the money squeezed out of ordinary Russians runs dry, attention shifts to the so-called ‘customs clearance of oligarchs,’ where financial flows are redistributed: some are wiped out, while others receive additional resources — only to be forced to hand them over to meet the Kremlin’s demands,” Kulyk said.According to the political scientist, Putin has long since stopped trying to justify to the business elite why the war is being fought.“The latest story is that Russian and Ukrainian so-called 'political' — but in reality criminal — migrants may be targeted: the Kuchenkos and all the others who fled with money, they even mention Yanukovych. These funds will be expropriated by the Putin regime to finance the war. A rumor is now circulating that they are preparing a kind of ‘search for enemies of the people’ among the business class — those too dissatisfied with the war — to thin their ranks,” Kulyk added.Diplomat Roman Bezsmertnyi believes that new U.S. sanctions targeting Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil are capable of weakening Russia's economy, but they are unlikely to affect the Kremlin's strategic plans, whose main goal remains the continuation of the war.