Sanctioned Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman says he can't use his ATM card or access any bank accounts

• Mikhail Fridman, the sanctioned Russian oligarch, is worth $10.3 billion, Bloomberg estimated.
• But EU and UK sanctions have prevented him from accessing any cash, he told CBS News.

Western sanctions have locked Mikhail Fridman out of his billions, the Russian oligarch told CBS News on Sunday.

"My card is blocked," he said, explaining that his ATM card wouldn't work if he put it in a machine. He added, "All my accounts are blocked."

When further prodded by CBS correspondent Seth Doane, who said the billionaire's lack of cash was "hard to believe," Fridman denied having access to any bank accounts.

"That's why I'm here, because I would like to explain," Fridman replied. He said the sanctions were "unfair" and "useless." He added: "For what? What did we do wrong, except for doing business in Russia?"

Fridman, who founded the largest private bank in Russia, was placed on both the EU and UK sanctions lists following the invasion of Ukraine. While the multibillionaire says he's a private businessperson with zero connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the EU says he's an "enabler of Putin's inner circle."

In an interview with Bloomberg published earlier this month, Fridman said he must fill out an application to spend money in the UK, which was then reviewed by the British government. This left him an allowance of just under $3,300 a month, he told the outlet.

Fridman, who was born in Ukraine, was one of the first Russian oligarchs to speak out against the war in a message sent to employees of his private-equity firm, LetterOne.

But his public pushback stopped short when it came to criticizing Putin directly — an action he said could cause the Russian president to punish him as an "enemy of the state."

While government officials hoped sanctioning Russian oligarchs would pressure the Kremlin to rethink its war on Ukraine, Fridman told Bloomberg and CBS that such thinking demonstrated a misunderstanding of Putin's complete control.