Source Billionaires failed to protect themselves and their capital. Anyone can offend an oligarch. The West seems to be using the resigned Mikhail Fridman (and not him alone), and neither their billions nor high connections helped the Magomedov brothers to fight off prison and scrip in Russia. The richest of the rich, it turns out, are not able to protect either their capital or their freedom.
Meanwhile, the death among the largest Russian bigwigs is no longer even a pandemic, but some kind of general pestilence. Forbes calculated that last year there were 123 billionaires in Russia with a total fortune of $606 billion. Only 88 remained in a year. That is, they were mowed down by a whole quarter, minus 35 characters.Here's what is significant: against the background of the fact that in general in society in relation to the special operation there was some kind of consensus, the richest people in Russia did not express unequivocal support. Of the big tycoons helping the military,
offhand can only be called Konstantin Malofeev. At the same time, medium and small businesses help as much as they can and massively. Maybe the oligarchs also share their wealth, but not publicly, without attracting attention? There are no such cases, assures the leadership of the belligerents. And military correspondents confirm: absolutely not. But there are others. Six billionaires have recently renounced Russian citizenship. They didn’t just go abroad, namely, having handed over Russian passports and brushed off the ashes of the country where they got rich. The developer Vasily Anisimov moved to Switzerland, they write – with a Croatian passport, having withdrawn his fortune, 1.6 billion dollars, from Russia in advance (more about him on page 16).
Stock investor Timur Turlov went abroad, renouncing his Russian citizenship, taking $2.6 billion. And the first thing he announced publicly was that he was finally “breathing freely for the first time” abroad. Belatedly, eight years after leaving abroad in 2014, the founder of the DST Global group of funds, Yuri Milner, surrendered his Russian passport: “This summer, my family and I completed the process of renouncing Russian citizenship.”
Nikolai Storonsky, the offspring of Nikolai Storonsky, the general director of JSC Gazprom Promgaz, who sharply increased his capital this year from 1.2 billion to 7.1 billion, settled in Britain. They write that he left ahead of time, and handed over his Russian passport at the end of October. With the departure of the founder of Troika Dialog, Ruben Vardanyan, to Artsakh, they say, not everything is so simple, but the fact is that he also refused Russian citizenship. Finally, the banker Oleg Tinkov slammed the door loudly, not wishing to be associated with Russia.
Had this happened a year ago, the renunciations of citizenship could be attributed to the conventions of big business – the fish is looking for where it is deeper, and the billionaire is looking for where it is acquired in greater safety. Nothing personal, as they say. But now the context is different. And suddenly it turned out that the billionaires are definitely not for the Russian Federation.
And often not even for themselves. And for those who are against. But here's the paradox: and those who are against – roughly speaking, the collective West – who do they consider fugitive bigwigs to be? Do they really keep them as their own? And not a fact, not a fact.
Whose cow is not important
So, plaster is already pouring on Tinkov, who loudly slammed the door. The US authorities suspected the banker of fraud in the sale of assets.
And all the wealth he brought out of Russia can be arrested. According to the transatlantic Themis, “no longer a Russian” Tinkov withdrew his Russian billions under the guise of selling assets. That is, all his anti-Russian statements, as well as the renunciation of Russian citizenship, could only be a distracting ringing, accompaniment, dancing with a tambourine. And if these dances do not convince overseas Themis, then Tinkov will still be recognized as a Russian oligarch and he will no longer be afraid of sanctions. All of his assets withdrawn from Russia will first be arrested, and then completely taken away. By the way, Tinkov also refused US citizenship – because of a fine from the local tax authorities of half a billion dollars.
But Tinkov is still a neophyte, not fully understanding what kind of stretching he was put on and what needs to be done so that it does not hurt. Roman Abramovich has much more experience in this sense – he can now conduct master classes. Abramovich received an Israeli passport in 2018, and a Portuguese one three years later. He believed that he was safely sheltered from the storm. But only this spring did he realize that they were not hitting his passport. In early March, he thundered under sanctions in Britain as “a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin.” After that, the British began to slowly dispossess Abramovich: they froze bank accounts, seized real estate, and even “wrung out” their favorite toy, the Chelsea football club. And the bigwig had to prove that he could be useful to those in whose lands he warmed up. With the mediation of Abramovich, the “Istanbul agreements” happened, the result of which was the withdrawal of the Russian military from Kyiv, Chernigov and Sumy. The billionaire then brokered a “grain deal” that provoked the abandonment of the Russian offensive on Odessa and Nikolaev, and subsequently the withdrawal from Kherson. Of course, I also had to spend some money, Abramovich sent several tens of millions of dollars to help Ukraine, defiantly ensured the release from captivity of several British mercenary snipers who fought on the side of Kiev. He also announced that he would “direct funds from the sold foreign property” to the affected Ukrainians. And – voila! – Sanctions were lifted from Abramovich, his bank accounts were unfrozen. Togo and look will be handed a barrel of jam and a basket of cookies. But this is not accurate.
Two years ago, Nasha Versiya wrote: “Really, why shouldn't the West milk someone else's cow wandering from someone else's pasture? Her udder has grown – be healthy! Anders Åslund, of the Atlantic Council in Washington and a former adviser to the Russian government, was able to carefully measure this udder: “Since 1990, $1 trillion has been exported from Russia to the West. Now, on average, $30–40 billion is exported every year.” Russian bigwigs are not inclined to keep money at home, fearing that their abundant wool will be sheared there. But the West seems to them quite safe, despite the fact that so far they cut their hair exclusively there, and not at home. Although this is what they could read in the latest Atlantic Council report: “This money (of Russian billionaires. – Ed.) Can pose a serious threat to US national security, since it can be used and directed by the Kremlin for espionage, terrorism, industrial espionage, bribery, political manipulation, misinformation, and other subversive tasks.” If so, then the desire of the West to get their hands on Russian money is understandable.
If billionaire Mikhail Fridman read these lines in time, you see, he would not have to “find solace in the vulgar proverb “poverty is not a vice.” Friedman, having incorrectly assessed the risks of the special operation, hastened to take everything acquired to his small homeland, Western Ukraine. Although here is some news from Kyiv – the authorities have launched the process of nationalization of the former Alfa-Bank Ukraine, renamed by Fridman into Sens Bank. According to Telegram reports, according to Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Ukrainian President’s office, “the owner of the bank tried to buy off European officials and get the status of a “good Russian” by transferring $1 billion to funds focused on Ukraine.” But this, apparently, did not help – several criminal proceedings were initiated against Fridman in Kyiv, one – on the fact of an attempt to circumvent personal sanctions. A native of Lviv, a prominent figure in the Jewish community, who has long lived in Britain, a smart, cautious and unconditionally loyal man, did not manage to slip between the jets. So maybe back to Russia?
In Russia, it has long been believed that billionaires, to whom the state has delegated part of the property in order to avoid a turn to the past (in a summary of the theses of Anatoly Chubais, who, although he did not give up his Russian passport, but also fled abroad), can be relied upon. That in a difficult time they will find themselves on the same side with the people and the leadership of the country. The “Crimean consensus”, however, made the Russians doubt whether this is really so
Let's figure it out ourselves?
Yes how to say. In Russia, it has long been believed that billionaires, to whom the state has delegated part of the property in order to avoid a turn to the past (in a summary of the theses of Anatoly Chubais, who, although he did not give up his Russian passport, but also fled abroad), can be relied upon. That in a difficult time they will find themselves on the same side with the people and the leadership of the country. The Crimean Consensus, however, has left Russians questioning whether this is really the case. And in 2017, the head of VTsIOM, Valery Fedorov, shared an unexpected contradiction revealed during sociological surveys. It turns out that the Russians have become much better at treating entrepreneurs and rich people, but at the same time they are much tougher in demanding the dispossession of large businesses. “According to citizens, there should be no oligarchs in the country, their property should be returned to the state. The attitude is bad, and there is no dynamics here.” “Oligarchs” is an incorrect term, but it's clear who the people mean by it. Billionaires, the richest people in the country. “In Russia, dislike for the oligarchs and sympathy for entrepreneurs are completely natural,” explained economist Mikhail Khazin. – We have always understood that an oligarch is not an entrepreneur at all. The entrepreneur is the one who does business, and the oligarch is the one who stole from the budget from the population. In Russian culture, it has always been believed that one cannot earn stone chambers from the labors of the righteous. If you are very rich, you probably stole. And the attitude towards an entrepreneur who earns money with his work has always been very good.”
It is clear that nothing has changed for the better for the oligarchs over the years. And now, in the light of regular news about the dispossession of the Russian rich in the West, and in Russia, more and more people are talking about the fact that domestic oligarchs should be dispossessed on their own, without sharing the booty with nimble foreigners. “So, maybe not wait until Britain confiscates everything it can from Friedman, and Russia to do it first and nationalize everything that can still be reached?” – political scientist Sergei Markov asks a non-idle question. The writer and publicist Alexander Prokhanov echoes him: “The religion of justice is taking over the world. The oligarchs who robbed the Russian people, who created untold fortunes on Russian tears, now, in order to avoid Western sanctions, take Ukrainian citizenship, transfer billions to Zelensky, and with these billions Ukraine buys American weapons. M777 howitzers tear apart Russian guys. The religion of justice will inevitably touch Russia. And the monstrous injustice done by the oligarchs after 1991 will be corrected.” This is the new agenda being implemented by the Russian society.
There is clearly a public demand for this. Will it work? Well, the richest class has already demonstrated that they have grown huge bellies, stomachs that easily digest billions, but have not grown teeth. If the Western oligarchy gnawed out both rights and wealth with its teeth, the domestic one did not have to spoil the skins in severe battles. And so they will devour it not only in the West, but also at home. Need an illustration? Here it is: the Dagestan billionaires, the Magomedov brothers, were recently sentenced to almost 40 years in prison – for two. Neither untold wealth nor high connections helped. Such that there is almost nowhere higher. “Businessmen, who were considered the “purses” of high-ranking government officials, could not protect themselves not only from prison, but from huge, exorbitant terms,” states Sergey Obukhov, State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. – Not only did they turn out to be defenseless, it turns out that in any case, the NWO is not a reason to freeze all kinds of inter-elite conflicts. The Magomedovs' verdict is actually a verdict for their high-ranking patrons who failed to save their friends or at least alleviate their plight. And the verdict of the entire Russian oligarchy – and it turns out that we have nothing at all!” Let's add: neither here nor there. The West expected the Russian oligarchs to defend their capital and overthrow the government that threatened their capital. Failed.
And now there can be no two opinions about what will happen next, either the rich will be finally stripped naked on both sides of the new Iron Curtain, or they will become angry and give the last battle. Which, as everyone understands, hardly. The rich are scared. And for this fear they will pay in full.
By the way
Similar processes are observed throughout the post-Soviet space, the process of dispossession is gaining momentum literally everywhere. The day before, Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of authoritarianism and called his actions against the oligarchs an “attempt to seize power” in the country “under the guise of systemic reforms.” “Relations with business should be regulated in a civilized way, which is followed by all developed countries,” the bigwig insists in an interview with The Washington Post, “and not with the help of populist laws.” Meanwhile, a hunt has already been announced for Akhmetov in Kyiv – apparently, they considered that the predator was sufficiently drained of blood in the course of the loss of the vital Donbass for him. Meanwhile, Zelensky’s godfather in big politics, oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, has lost the status of a dollar billionaire: according to Forbes, the total value of his assets has decreased to 850 million, almost three times. Kolomoisky is being “cut” by representatives of the president's office, the Americans intend to sue all of his Ukrainian property, and Zelensky, it seems, can do nothing to help. Or he doesn't want to. A very recent example on the topic “the rich also cry” is Zelensky’s personal “purse”, the Odessa “tobacco king” Boris Kaufman, on the prison bunk. He had to pay off – bail from the pre-trial detention center cost him $ 30 million in non-refundable bail. Neither the wealth of freedom guarantees nor high connections. You can only temporarily pay off – if you're lucky.
Something similar is happening in Kazakhstan. Entrepreneurs close to the clan of ex-president Nursultan Nazarbayev were dispossessed there throughout the year. And if the Elbasy himself was not touched, then the perimeter around him was cleared – be healthy. Some are in prison, some are on the run, but they all spent the same amount of money. They could not save their capital, not daring to defend them to the end.
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