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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Oligarchs started a war: now for exclusion from the sanctions lists
2023-03-08
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Petr Akopov

[RIA] If in 2003 Mikhail Khodorkovsky*, Pyotr Aven and Mikhail Fridman were told that in 20 years they would all live in the UK, they would not be surprised: by that time, every self-respecting oligarch had already acquired real estate on the island, and Boris Berezovsky In the same year, he received the status of a political refugee there.

And even if they were told that in London they would not live alternately with Moscow , but permanently, they would not be too shocked: well, anything can happen, which means that everyone in Russia lost. But if they were told that two of them would be under the sanctions of the UK and the European Union and would not be able to manage their capital, and the third would not only not, but would not want to stand up for them before the Western authorities, they would be extremely surprised.

But fate turned around like this: Aven and Fridman are sitting in their London residences, and Khodorkovsky asks not for them, but for Oleg Tinkov— another London resident who in 2003 sold beer of his own name to the Russians, but in 2022 fell under the rink of British sanctions. But the world is not without good people - and there is someone to ask for Aven and Fridman.

A man is interceding for them, who 20 years ago was a postgraduate student at the Ural State University, but now he has become so successful that he can already raise his voice in defense of the disgraced oligarchs.

“We do not believe that they were somehow connected with the Putin regime or that they should be held responsible for its crimes. <...> Only if there is an exit strategy will the sanctions be effective. Otherwise, people have nowhere to run but back to Moscow, where they become even more dependent on Putin. They need to be given a clear option: do this and that, and the sanctions will be lifted."

This is Leonid Volkov * - the head of the Navalnovskiy FBK ** and the actual head of the "navalnists in exile". He is engaged not only in compiling sanctions lists for the West (in particular, the author of this text got into them thanks to the efforts of the FBK **), but also in lobbying for the subsequent exclusion from them. But in this case, everything is not so banal - they say, first they asked to include Aven and Fridman, and then they will be expelled for money. The fact is that the West follows the "FBK** lists", but not only them - and the Alfa members were included clearly for a different reason.

But Volkov's boss did not forget the "good deeds" - after all, it was Alfa Group (whose owners were Aven and Fridman) that made a significant contribution to the promotion and financing of the "fighter against corruption" and his projects. The oligarchic plot against Putin failed back in 2012, Navalny ended up in prison in 2021, and Aven and Fridman were in voluntary captivity in London in 2022, but they all still count on revenge.

So why, then, are they not together with Khodorkovsky, who, after his release from prison, has been plotting for power in post-Putin Russia for ten years now? Why does he not ask for former fellow competitors, with whom he sawed the same Russian oil industry in the 90s? Can't forget the oligarchic wars of those years?

Everything is much simpler: the fugitive oligarchs now compete not for the past, but for the future. For the future of Russia, which they want to regain. Of course, Aven and Friedman are rather cowardly, but after all, among those alphas for whom Volkov asks, there is German Khan , their eternal ally and deputy, who was just engaged in "specific matters" on earth. Not only Khodorkovsky * had people like Nevzlin who solved any issues by any means.

So why now Khodorkovsky help Aven and Fridman to unfreeze their money: so that they would then finance not only Ukraine with them(this just does not bother him), but also Navalny, as well as in general the whole new "revolutionary underground" in Russia? Why is this for Khodorkovsky, who sees himself as a gray cardinal and coordinator of all anti-Russian work? Let "fighters against the regime" turn to him, and he will already find both funding and support for them from Western intelligence services. He does not need a competing company represented by a bunch of Volkov - "Alpha" (that is, bulk carriers with independent financing).

So nothing changes in the oligarchic habits: they just used to share the natural wealth of Russia, and now they have plans for a future revenge, for the return of what was lost. And the competition here is no less fierce - only the result of it will not be the triumphant return of the oligarchs to Russia, but their transformation into a banal servant of Russia's enemies. And in the final - the fate of the London pioneer Boris Berezovsky.

Posted by:badanov

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