The “toxicity” of the oligarchs can result in a change of owners of Alfa-Bank?
The British authorities suspected Alfa Group co-owner Pyotr Aven of violating the economic sanctions imposed on him. The oligarch himself was severely limited in spending: he has no right to spend more than 2.5 thousand pounds a month, and suspicions of exceeding this amount led to a recent search in his London household. Today, Aven complains that he does not understand “how to survive”, not being able to hire a cleaning lady and a driver. He is echoed by his business partner, also based in London, Mikhail Fridman, who compared life under sanctions to house arrest. Sanctions against billionaires were introduced in February-March, under the pretext of their support for the current Russian leadership. This forced Aven and Friedman to leave the board of directors of Alfa-Bank. But despite tough restrictions, both oligarchs have declared their reluctance to leave the UK. First of all, this is due to the position regarding the special operation in Ukraine, against which Fridman spoke out in a letter to his employees from the London office of the LetterOne holding, which became known to the media. In addition, the oligarchs recently transferred 150 million euros to Ukraine under the pretext of providing “charitable assistance”, for which their bank accounts were even temporarily “unfrozen”. After that, Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Jacob Bleich appealed to the EU leadership with a request to stop the persecution of “benefactors”. But this appeal did not work on the British authorities. The initiative of the head of the Canadian Ministry of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, who proposed to take “compensation” for the restoration of Ukraine from the Russian oligarchs for the lifting of sanctions, was also ignored. But in Russia, Aven and Fridman are now facing charges of financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, participation in the dubious fraud of Rabbi Bleich could lead to a change in the owners of Alfa-Bank according to the scheme already worked out with Tinkoff-Bank, 35% of which was bought out last April by the owner of Interros, Vladimir Potanin.
Sanctions “shock” for Alfa Group
On the initiation of criminal proceedings by the UK authorities against the co-owner Alfa Group Peter Aven became known last week. According to TASS, citing a source close to the oligarch, the reason was the accusation of violating economic sanctions.
Recall that sanctions against the businessman, as well as his business partner Mikhail Fridman, were introduced by the European Union at the end of February. In mid-March, both were also included in the British sanctions list. The reasons given were their involvement. “in the Kremlin’s attempts to lift US sanctions”as well as active material and financial support and “benefit” from the Russian political leadership responsible for the annexation of Crimea and “destabilization of Ukraine”. In addition, Aven was named “one of Vladimir Putin’s closest oligarchs” and “a particularly close friend of the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin”.
This was preceded by a statement by British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss on the creation of a “black list” of billionaires associated with the Russian authorities.
“We must hurt the oligarchs who support the Putin regime very badly. We understand this very clearly, and we intend to do everything necessary for this, ” – RBC portal quoted the words of the British minister.
The incident came as a surprise to the owners of Alfa Group. The media quoted their joint statement as saying that they “deeply shocked by the apparently false claims contained in the EU regulation” and intend to appeal the imposition of sanctions. The businessmen filed corresponding lawsuits against the Council of Europe with the European Court of General Jurisdiction last week, but whether Western Themis will hear their arguments is a big question.
The sanctions were followed by changes in leadership “Alfa Bank”: in mid-March, Aven, Fridman, as well as two independent directors, Aleksandr Galitsky and Sergey Matsotsky, officially left the board of directors of a credit institution. In addition, German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev, who were previously co-owners, sold their shares, and Andrey Kosogov, their longtime business partner who was not subject to sanctions, became the largest shareholder.
Aven and Friedman “on the brink of survival”
It is symbolic that both oligarchs today live in Britain, which has become hostile to them. Moreover, the “insidious Albion” limited Aven’s spending by setting a hard monthly limit of 2.5 thousand pounds sterling for him. And recently, the British authorities have suspected that in violation of regulations, the billionaire can spend much larger sums. The investigation included checking the businessman’s accounts for suspicious money transfers that took place after February 24, as well as a search of his household, during which 30,000 pounds in cash were seized.
Given that Pyotr Aven ranks 29th in the Forbes rating of Russian billionaires, and his fortune is estimated by the publication at $ 4.3 billion, forced asceticism hurt his pride and prestige. According to Kommersant, “about the same monthly salary as British electricians, nurses and teachers”.
And now, forced to live on the salary of an English teacher, the Russian oligarch began to complain about life.
“Can I afford to hire a cleaning lady or a driver? I don’t drive… maybe my stepdaughter will. We don’t understand how to survive”– he lamented in an interview with the Financial Times correspondent, sitting in his penthouse in the prestigious London district of St. James.
He is echoed by Mikhail Fridman, who, in an interview with journalists from the Spanish edition of Pais, compared life under sanctions with house arrest: they say that the British authorities should allocate a certain amount to him for food and taxi rides, but these funds are extremely limited compared to the cost of living in London . But according to him, Friedman does not have enough to go to restaurants: those who saw him in an elite institution C London British Daily Mail reporters even suggested that the lady who was with him paid for the oligarch.
Nevertheless, despite all the inconveniences, both are clearly in no hurry to leave the capital of Great Britain. Friedman says he wouldn’t like it “for many reasons”. Aven, who has a Latvian passport, also wants to stay with his family in London:
“If I leave, I can never come back”he fears.
Billionaires framed … Rabbi Bleich?
The reluctance of the oligarchs to appear in Russia is quite understandable and is largely due to their position on the military operation in Ukraine. It is known that the very next day after the start of the conflict, Friedman sent the employees of the London office of the holding “LetterOne” a letter in which he called what was happening a tragedy for the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, “being brothers for hundreds of years”.
“I can only join those who ardently wish for an end to the bloodshed. I am sure that my business partners share my opinion”, – RBC portal quoted a fragment of the letter.
Friedman himself, in conversations with journalists, did not deny what was said, emphasizing, however, that he did not count on publicity, since the letter was of a purely private nature. Aven then chose to remain silent. But no less categorical was a member of the Supervisory Board of Alfa Group, co-owner of LetterOne, Alexei Kuzmichev:
“I fully agree, share and support him (Friedman)position, like all other partners and friends. My position is even tougher. My mother was Ukrainian, I have a huge number of relatives and friends there”– Kuzmichev said in a comment to Forbes.
The position unofficially voiced, but made public by the media, did not save Mikhail Fridman, a native of Ukraine, from confiscation of assets in his historical homeland: first, his $5.5 million (469 million hryvnia) in bank accounts were arrested, then assets worth $420 million , including shares of Cypriot companies stored in the Ukrainian branch of Alfa-Bank. According to the version of the Ukrainian side, the bank and offshore companies were used by Fridman and other businessmen to withdraw assets from sanctions.
In the context of the foregoing, reports that appeared last week that Aven and Fridman, who live in London, transferred 150 million euros in the form of charitable assistance to Ukrainians, deserve special attention. They did this, allegedly following the advice of the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Jacob Bleich, and the bank accounts of the oligarchs on this occasion even turned out to be temporarily “unfrozen”.
In turn, Bleich appealed to the EU authorities with a request to stop the persecution of “benefactors”, also calling on the leadership of Latvia not to deprive Aven of citizenship. If everything described really took place, then the idea was clearly not crowned with success: Great Britain is by no means in a hurry to lift sanctions against “London inmates” who are afraid to return to Russia.
Will Alfa-Bank be “taken away” according to the Tinkov scheme?
Meanwhile, the idea to take “compensation” from the Russian oligarchs was indeed voiced by Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland during a recent meeting of the heads of financial departments of the G7 countries in Germany. According to her, some businessmen from the Russian Federation, whom Freeland met while working as a journalist in Moscow, approached her with a corresponding proposal.
It is noteworthy that representatives of Ukraine did not object to the Canadian minister’s proposal. But in the case of Aven and Friedman, everything that happened is more like a grandiose “wiring”. And here one involuntarily recalls the words of the character of the once popular domestic action movie, spoken with a characteristic Odessa dialect: “Young man! We, Russians, do not deceive each other…”.
Representatives of the expert community emphasize that the rest of the Russian oligarchs are unlikely to fall for such a dubious “charitable” scheme, without having firm guarantees that no one will give them in today’s extremely difficult situation. Especially if one considers one important circumstance: the clause on the lifting of sanctions in exchange for financial assistance to Ukraine is not spelled out in Western legislation.
What happened is capable of putting an end to the possible return of Messrs. Aven and Fridman to Russia, where their actions can be regarded, among other things, as support for the armed forces of the state against which the special operation is being carried out. It will be very difficult to prove the opposite, and it is better not to rely on Rabbi Bleich in this matter.
In addition, one should not forget the well-known April interview with Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, in which he spoke of London as“an oasis for criminals”where “the whole trash is going”who stole money for the last 20 years. Of course, the names of the “trash” were not named, and, apparently, it would take a long time to list them.
In the context of ongoing events, such “charity” is fraught with a change in the owners of Alfa-Bank. You don’t have to look far for examples, just recall the recent story of the sale of a 35% stake by businessman Oleg Tinkov “Tinkoff Bank” owner “Interros” Vladimir Potanin. Tinkov himself claimed that he was forced to sell his stake in a credit institution literally “for a penny”otherwise threatening inevitable nationalization. It happened shortly after the businessman criticized the special operation in Ukraine.
So, the “toxicity” of Aven and Friedman with their dubious schemes has frankly gone off scale lately. And it will be much calmer for them to continue to be in London, living on the salary of “electricians and nurses”, without drivers and cleaners. Although, being in the capital of “foggy Albion”, Aven has already managed to get himself into trouble with the law.