Filenews 1 March 2022
By Rachel Sandler
As the U.S. and Europe strengthen sanctions against Russian billionaires—including a promise to "hunt down" their yachts and villas—oligarchs who created their properties through their devotion to Vladimir Putin begin to speak out against the invasion launched by the Russian president against Ukraine.
No one directly mentions Putin, but the public statements calling for peace are an unprecedented signal of disagreement with Russia's authoritarian leader.
The Ukrainian-born Mikhail Fridman, founder of Alfa Bank - Russia's largest private bank - was the first oligarch to speak - apparently unintentionally - against the Russian president's invasion of Ukraine, according to the Financial Times. "I don't make political statements, I'm a businessman with responsibilities towards my thousands of employees in Russia and Ukraine. But I am convinced that war can never be the answer. This crisis will cost lives and harm two nations that have been brothers for hundreds of years," he wrote in an e-mail to employees of LetterOne's private equity firm, which was later made public. In the same e-mail, he referred to his personal story: Fridman lived in Western Ukraine until he was 17. Both of his parents are Ukrainian citizens, who live in Lviv, which he called "his favorite city". Lviv is among the cities targeted by Russian forces.
The European Union on Monday imposed personal sanctions on Fridman. Among other things, the freezing of its assets and a travel ban. His business partner, Alexey Kuzmichev, stressed in an interview with the Russian version of Forbes that he sided with Fridman, but as he added: "I am not going to make statements on political issues."
Oleg Deripaska, who created his fortune based on Russian raw materials and is a former son-in-law of Boris Yeltsin, also called for an end to the war with a telegram post on Sunday, calling for peace. "The world is very important! The negotiations should start as soon as possible!" he wrote. On Monday, he described the rapidly deteriorating economic situation in Russia as a "real crisis" and urged greater economic reforms. "It is necessary to change economic policy, to end all this state capitalism," he noted.
On Monday, the day he was sanctioned by the EU, Russia's richest man, the 'steel baron' Alexei Mordashov, described the clashes as a "tragedy of two sister peoples" and said that everything necessary must be done to stop the bloodshed. "It is terrible that Ukrainians and Russians are being killed, the world is suffering from hardship, the economy is collapsing. We must do whatever it takes to find a way out of this conflict immediately and stop the bloodshed, to help those affected to return to their normal lives," the Russian tycoon added.
"I have absolutely nothing to do with the current geopolitical tensions. I do not understand why sanctions have been imposed against us," he added.
Other Russian billionaires have also called for an end to the war in Ukraine. Billionaire Oleg Tinkov, founder of Tinkoff Bank, who is currently undergoing treatment for cancer, said his health adventure showed him the fragility of human life. "Innocent people are dying in Ukraine right now, every day, it is unthinkable and unacceptable! States should spend money on treating people, on research to fight cancer and not on war," he said.
Dmitry and Igor Bukhman, the siblings behind video game developer Playrix, which creates free games for mobile apps like Homescapes and Fishdom, said they would give each of their 4,000 employees an extra salary and stressed that violence "can never be the solution to a problem."
"It is difficult to remain silent in the face of the current situation, what is happening is a great tragedy for everyone, including our company. It was hard even to imagine," the Bukhman brothers noted in a Facebook post.
Igor Rybakov, the billionaire co-owner of roofing and insulation company Technonicol, told his YouTube channel - last week - that he understands that "the point of no return has been crossed and that a serious story is unfolding that will affect the lives of millions of people. All of this is unpleasant." At the same time, he told viewers not to panic and buy undervalued securities of Russian companies. "All this annoys me. I want all this uncertainty to end," he added, according to the Russian version of Forbes.
The importance of these statements is great. It's been almost two decades since Putin's critic and then Russia's richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was put in jail for alleged tax evasion after funding opposition parties, and his property was confiscated. (He denied all the accusations). Since then, very few - if none - oligarchs have dared to oppose Putin. Khodorkovsky himself urges the Russians to take to the streets, saying on Instagram that "the war against Ukraine must stop at all costs."
We cannot know whether the aforementioned billionaires are sincere in their calls for a ceasefire or whether this is their reaction to the forthcoming sanctions and the dangers stemming from an economy in 'free fall'.
But there are many who haven't spoken yet. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of English football club Chelsea, who handed over the "management" (but not the ownership) of the team to a charity -- a largely meaningless gesture -- has not taken a stand in public, but allegedly participated in peace talks in Belarus on Monday after the Ukrainian government asked for his help. (His daughter, Sofia Abramovich, allegedly made an anti-war post on social media, according to British journalist Carole Cadwalladr). The rest of the dozens of Russian oligarchs, including several who were sanctioned by the EU on Monday, such as Facebook's first investor Alisher Usmanov, remain silent.
Source: Forbes
