(ANSA) - ROME, DECEMBER 04 - One of the most influential voices in support of Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine is that of 71-year-old oligarch Yuri Kovalchuk, according to whom war can demonstrate Russia's strength.
This was revealed by intelligence sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal.
The billionaire and Putin have met frequently since the war began in February and have also spoken by phone or video, according to a friend of the Kovalchuk family and a former Russian intelligence official.
The US Treasury Department called Kovalchuk Putin's "personal banker".
The Russian tycoon controls Bank Rossiya, which in turn has built a network of offshore companies that have benefited Putin and his friends, and invests in projects important to the state, according to what emerged from interviews with former US officials and Kremlin analysts, as well as public documents and information revealed by the Panama Papers.
Kovalchuk's National Media Group also owns or holds major stakes in dozens of Russian television, film production and advertising companies, including the state-run Channel One.
Four of the National Media Group's affiliate channels are among the top 10 in the country.
Kovalchuk "has two of the most important jobs for Putin," said Anders Aslund, an economist and senior fellow at the Free World Forum think tank in Stockholm, who was an adviser to the Russian government from 1991 to 1994: "He's the money man and the average".
It was the National Media Group television channels that aired allegations by Russian officials that Ukraine is planning to detonate a "dirty bomb" on its territory.
(HANDLE).