They are silent. Why do Russian oligarchs not make a "palace coup" in Moscow - FT investigation

Her journalists spoke with seven Russian oligarchs, which became the objects of personal sanctions of the event. In addition, the FT interlocutors were high -ranking bankers, current and former heads of large companies, former Russian officials, friends and relatives of large businessmen. According to the results of these interviews, a group of oligarchs appears against Putin's war and outraged that she has destroyed their position, "the newspaper writes.

"However, at the same time, they are angry and west, believing that they were made by the puppies for the events that do not depend on them," FT writes. Video of NB Day recounts the most important facts and conclusions from this publication.

Since on February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin began a full -scale invasion of Ukraine, the accounts of dozens of Russian oligarchs in Western banks have been frozen, and some of them had to give up their shares in Western companies and get rid of Mediterranean, reminds FT. "But six months later [after the Great War] there were signs that the sanctions are encouraging the oligarchs to the" palace coup "against Putin. Instead, they had a completely different impact.

Increasingly, the Russian oligarchs are trying to keep what is left of their wealth, ”the authors of the publication write. They cite an example of a conversation that took place in the spring of 2022, between the Russian billionaire Michael Friedman and a temporary prison in US affairs in Ukraine Christina Quin, who was at that time the highest American diplomat in Ukraine.

Friedman, who grew up in Ukrainian Lviv, but has Russian and Israeli passports, and has accumulated most of its herdship in Russia, called Quinn with an unexpected offer in the first weeks of the invasion. He stated that he was ready to sacrifice some of his hose to Ukraine for damages caused by war, if the United States helps him avoid sanctions. However, according to FT three sources, the conversation quickly switched to high tones.

Friedman began to shout and swear to Christina Quin, insisting that he had no effect on Putin. "He spoke of his love for his native Ukraine," says one of the FT interlocutors. - But then clearly broke into emotions - they say, "You want to take away all my money!" In response, Queen said Friedman that their conversation was over and put the phone. Then the oligarch wrote a diploma with a text message with apologies, but did not receive the answer.

Officially, a businessman denies that such a conversation has taken place, and the US State Department has stated that it would not comment on the topic. However, Friedman did not stop there. According to Finacial Times, he and his business partner Petro Aven intended to reduce sanctions through Western courts. At least 21 Russian businessman has launched lawsuits against the EU, trying to abolish the sanctions imposed against them.

This is evidenced by the documents submitted to the European Court of Luxembourg and the data of FT sources. And if some of these oligarchs privately admit that such legal efforts may not be enough to return their assets in the West, then Avenue and Friedman, previously "famous" by their rigid judicial battles in the British courts, are ready to go to this process to the end. "These guys are truly angry," says a high-ranking banker who knows both oligarchs well.

"They are energetic people and fighters, but it's a very difficult fight. " FT interlocutors make it clear that such oligarchs consider themselves not involved in the Kremlin's decisions and Putin's desire to wage war with Ukraine. To make a palace revolution and overthrow the king, you must first be in the palace. None of these people are there, - says one of the "sub -" Russian "businessmen.

- How should Friedman influence the President's decision from the United Kingdom? And even if Friedman was in his home in Moscow, he would still have no contact with the president. How could he influence his decision? Just a few months after he first occupied President in 2000, Putin gathered the most prominent Russian oligarchs in the Kremlin's Catherine Hall. Then he explained to them new rules for big business in Putin.

The main thing is to stay "at the distance of the extended hand" from politics, if they want to keep their wealth, resembles FT. In the same hall, Putin gathered oligarchs and on February 24, 2022 on the day of invasion of Ukraine. At this meeting, Aven, a partner of Friedman, was one of two members of the Sembankirshchyna - seven businessmen who financed the re -election of Boris Yeltsin by President of 1996, who remained in Russia.

Others who dared to challenge Putin, or found themselves in exile as a former oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, or dead as Boris Berezovsky. Meanwhile, many of the Russian oligarchs who once liked to spend time in the West have now resigned themselves to a forced return to Russia. Those who live in Moscow "humbly accepted their status in the fighting country," FT writes.

One of the Russian businessmen who spoke with the publication believes that Western sanctions are forcing the elite of the Russian Federation to be even closer to the Kremlin, even if they prefer to distance themselves from it. "Some people decide:" Do I need all this [confrontation of the sanction regime of the West]? I will return to Moscow, where I will be happy to go to restaurants and feel great, ” - quotes the British newspaper of this interlocutor.

The hope that in the Russian Federation such billionaires will resist the Kremlin's plans, most likely in vain, according to the former US ambassador to Moscow Michael McFol. He shows that there are two types of oligarchs in Russia. “There are oligarchs of the 1990s, and we [in the West] are very proud of when we impose sanctions on them and remove their yachts. But let's admit openly: these guys have no influence on Vladimir Putin, ”McFol notes.

On the other hand, he reminds, there is a new cohort of Russian billionaires. "This is a truly rich guy, and he is close to Putin, but he is truly rich precisely because he is close to Putin," characterizes McFol of a typical representative of this layer of oligarchs of the Russian Federation. "Therefore, he has no pressure levers to force him to stop the war.

" At the same time, the oligarchs feel that they are trapped - between their fate in Russia, and the fact that they will face the massacre if they dare to oppose the war. Those subdivisions that still remain outside the Russian Federation "regularly receive calls from the Kremlin calling home," FT reports, citing two people who received such calls, and several of those who are familiar with this approach of Moscow.

"They [oligarchs] say they are afraid to be poisoned, but are actually afraid to lose their money and reputation," which they worked so hard, says a high -ranking Russian businessman. Now they "do not know how to act in such a situation," he adds. "They are completely disoriented," this interlocutor concludes. And in response to the question of why they do not oppose the war more actively, several Russian oligarchs pointed to the business of Banker Oleg Tinkov.

In May, an eccentric magnate stated that he was forced to sell a share at his bank's tinkoff after condemning Putin's "crazy war" on Instagram. For some oligarchs, this incident has become a "instructive story about how condemnation of war can cost them," Financial Times writes. Tinkov himself told the interviewer Yuri Dudy: “Friedman called me and said: You are crazy. He says, "You had to sell first and then declare. " I say, "Mish, me [still], I feel so. " I can't be silent.

" Friedman refused to comment on this conversation to FT journalists, but called the war tragedy and stated that more frank criticism would jeopardize his companies in Russia. As a result, most oligarchs restricted their public statements by the European Court of Luxembourg, where their claims continue to accumulate. “I could do something useful and resist the capture of the economy by the state.

But I have no more assets, ”said FT one of the magnates who was present at a meeting with Putin on February 24. "Now I spend all my time to sue the EU. " At the same time, a number of Russian oligarchs are outraged by the fact that in some cases, imposing sanctions against them, the EU actually exposed them in financing Putin's military vehicle through taxes paid by large Russian companies.

However, the billionaires state that it is only a meager part of the sums that the European countries have spent on Russian oil and gas since the invasion. "The EU helps Putin more than us," says one of those who objects to the sanction list. "Let them impose sanctions against themselves.

" However, since the EU lawsuits are likely to be delayed for years, some Russian oligarchs consider the idea of ​​a peculiar redemption - a willingness to abandon part of their wealth in favor of Ukraine in exchange as opposed to sanctions. According to FT sources, with such proposals, in addition to Friedman, several more Russian businessmen have addressed Kiev, offering a "service service".

"If there was a rule according to which they give 50% [of their height] in support of Ukraine, and the remaining 50% leave themselves, then [Russian oligarchs] would come all to the only one," - says a high -ranking Russian businessman. - The problem is that they do not have a way out. You need to set them some direction that you can seek.

"This businessman argues that, despite the threat of repression in the Russian Federation, most oligarchs are ready to grasp their chances of returning their funds, because" Putin can offer them something only in a [distant] future. " "But everything they want is now to return the money they had and which they have lost. " However, in Ukraine such wishes are skeptical. Presidential Heads Rostislav Shurma.

- The main purpose of sanctions is to stop the war, not to find certain conditions to agree to them. "For example, Friedman's efforts after 2014, including the financing It is not enough for Ukraine to support the withdrawal War and break your Russian passport. Friedman also denies that he had ever discussed Ukrainian citizenship with the authorities of Ukraine. Other officials in Kiev sympathize with the "difficult" position of Russian oligarchs, FT writes.