Russian-Jewish oligarch Fridman implicated in destabilization of Ukraine
March 2, 2022 Anno Domini
The owners of Alfa-Bank were responsible for the "destabilization"
The co-owners of Alfa-Bank, Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman , who were on the next sanctions list , are leaving the Board of Directors of the credit institution. As follows from the official statement of the press service of the institution, Petr Aven was replaced as chairman of the Board of Directors by his deputy Oleg Sysuev , who oversees the development of the regional network, social projects and the banking Committee for Sustainable Development (ESG). In addition, Alexander Galitsky and Sergey Matsotsky will leave the Council .
Recall that the next personal sanctions against 26 Russian officials, businessmen, cultural figures and leading state television channels, the European Union introduced at the end of February in response to a military special operation in Ukraine. Among others, Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov , Minister of Transport Dmitry Savelyev , Deputy Secretary of the United Russia General Council Andrei Turchak , heads of Transneft Nikolai Tokarev and Rosneft Igor Sechin , TV presenters Olga Skabeeva and Roman Babayan were sanctioned , writer Zakhar Prilepin and others.
The inclusion of Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman on the list is explained by their participation "in the Kremlin's attempts to lift US sanctions imposed to counter Russia's aggressive policy towards Ukraine . " In addition, in order to obtain benefits, they allegedly actively “materially and financially” supported the Russian leadership responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the “destabilization of Ukraine” .
The billionaires themselves intend to challenge the imposition of personal sanctions against them. They call the EU decision "unreasonable" and capable of causing "undue damage" to employees, customers, partners and businesses.
Earlier, on February 28, it became known that Fridman left the Board of Directors of the Veon telecommunications holding , the owner of the VimpelCom mobile operator ( Beeline brand ), which he had been a member of since 2010.
Pacifist effusions of Friedman
It should be noted that even his recently voiced anti-war position did not help Friedman to avoid being included in the EU sanctions list. As you know, last week, in a letter addressed to employees of the London-based investment company LetterOne , the oligarch called what is happening in Ukraine a “tragedy” and called for an end to the bloodshed.
The billionaire noted that "war can never be a solution" , and "the cost of the crisis will be the lives and damage to two nations that have been fraternal for hundreds of years . " At the same time, he emphasized that everything he wrote was not a political statement; according to him , this is just a private letter. Nevertheless, Friedman expressed the hope that business partners share the voiced position.
But the businessman did not wait for much support from his colleagues. For example, the same Pyotr Aven prudently chose to remain silent. Perhaps the only one who was not afraid to voice his personal opinion to journalists was a member of the Supervisory Board of Alfa Group, co-owner of LetterOne Alexey Kuzmichev :
If Friedman had known that his letter would become the property of the Western media, perhaps he would have been more careful in the "epistolary genre." Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg estimates, in just a day of the special operation, the largest Russian businessmen lost a total of $38 billion . Among those who suffered the most losses were the president of LUKOIL Vagit Alekperov (his fortune decreased by $6.2 billion), the head of the board of directors of Severstal Alexei Mordashov (minus $4.2 billion) and the owner of NLMK Vladimir Lisin (minus $3.8 billion).
The last of the "seven bankers"
In the context of the above, it is not surprising that it was the owners of large businesses who were the first to speak about the need to end the armed confrontation in Russia.
As we can see, Friedman was not the only one in his critical assessment of the current situation, because while some are losing their lives, others are counting billions in losses. The media do not report anything about the financial losses of the owner of Alfa Group. Meanwhile, at the end of 2020, his fortune increased by $2.5 billion to $ 15.5 billion . Petr Aven, whose assets are estimated at $ 5.3 billion, also became richer by $700 million .
Only today, when events in Ukraine are developing according to an increasingly unpredictable scenario, Friedman's pacifist reasoning resembles a kind of political manifesto that is clearly inconsistent with the official guidelines of the "party and government." This may already be fraught not just with sanctions, but with something much more serious. "Forbes" recalls that of all the representatives of the so-called "seven bankers" of the era of Boris Yeltsin, Fridman was the only one who managed to save his bank, moreover, to make it the largest private credit institution in Russia.
So anti-war rhetoric can be expensive, and the same Aven knowingly prefers to remain silent. Apparently, for now, the already imposed sanctions are enough for him, as well as the defiant deprivation of the status of a trustee of the British Royal Academy of Arts and the return of the previously made donation for the exhibition of Francis Bacon.
"Truth" according to the "precepts" of Friedman and "A1"
But while the oligarchs are preparing to calculate the losses from the next sanctions, people from the scandalous well-known company A1 , the investment division of Alfa Group, headed by Alexander Fine and famous for their penchant for hostile takeover of assets, or, in other words, raiding, have become more active in Moscow. According to Vedomosti, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow canceled interim measures in relation to the project for the construction of an office complex with an area of 7 thousand square meters next to the architectural monument - the estate of Grigory Yurgenson, located in the center of the capital on Ivanovskaya Gorka.
Initially, Aleksey Blanin ’s development company AB Development planned to build the facility , but in September last year, the offshore Pravda Real Estate Opportunity Corporation registered in the British Virgin Islands became the new owner of the developer of Delovoy Mir Management Company LLC . According to Vedomosti, this structure is also associated with the Pravda Arbitration Fund , whose founders Ilya Lunegov , Robert Topkaev and Taras Kondratiev are from from A1. The fund itself specializes, among other things, in bankruptcies and the so-called "collection of complex debts." That is, his team actually works out previously acquired skills.
The cost of the deal to acquire Delovoy Mir Management Company was not announced, but according to experts, it could be about 850 million rubles . The project itself for the construction of a business center on Ivanovskaya Gorka was considered quite successful, but representatives of the public, who initiated in 2020-2022, opposed its implementation. 11 lawsuits and sent 14 petitions for the imposition of interim measures. One of these petitions was granted in November last year, but in the end, Lunegov and his associates managed to achieve the lifting of the ban on construction, investments in which are estimated at 1.2 billion rubles .
It is significant that the Department of Cultural Heritage of Moscow, whose representative participated in the proceedings, is confident that the nearby historical and architectural monuments are not in danger, and all the necessary sections of the project have been agreed in accordance with the requirements of the legislation on their protection. Accordingly, the decision of the court to cancel the provisional measures of the capital's officials is quite satisfied. How can we be sure that the owners of the Pravda fund are acting confidently, and how can we know if the possible support of senior comrades from Alfa Group is the reason for this?
Even from this brief fragment, one can understand how Mikhail Fridman built his business empire. Whether it will crack under the “strike” of Western sanctions is a big question. Alfa-Bank, for example, is one of the systemically important Russian banks, which means that it can always count on state support. Unless, of course, the political views of its owners do not diverge from the official course of the current government.