Billionaire oligarch complains about sanctions - "May I still have cleaning staff or drivers?"
Created: 03/31/2022, 22:08
By: Marcus Giebel
Where have all the billions gone?
Pjotr Aven (left) feels that the West has treated him unfairly because of the sanctions.
© IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
With specific sanctions as a result of the Ukraine war, the West wants to hit Vladimir Putin's circle in particular.
An oligarch explains the dramatically changed situation for him.
Munich – The sentence can hardly be surpassed in terms of drama.
"We don't know how to survive." In this case, however, it did not come from the mouth of one of the millions of victims of the Ukraine war who are on the run or have to seek shelter somewhere in the country to avoid falling victim to Russian rocket fire to fall.
No, Pyotr Aven said it.
And so applied quite thickly.
The 67-year-old is one of the oligarchs who are said to be close to Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin, which is why his estimated fortune has been frozen by four to five billion euros, depending on the source.
He made his money in banking, but also in the technology and energy sectors.
Which enabled him to lead a life of luxury, most recently in London where Awen settled.
Ukraine war and sanctions: Oligarch speaks of "completely destroyed business"
But all of a sudden he had to say goodbye to this splendor.
Ever since Russia's troops invaded Ukraine and the West bled various oligarchs financially for it.
“Our business is completely destroyed.
Everything we have built in 30 years is now completely ruined.
And we have to start a new life somehow,” Awen complains in the
Financial Times
(interview behind a paywall), as
Stern
and Die
Welt
report.
He had already been put on the sanctions list at the beginning of March.
Together with Igor Sechin, head of the Russian energy company Rosneft, the steel magnate Alexei Mordashov, the big businessman Alisher Usmanov and his banker colleague Mikhail Fridman.
Video: London sanctions brutal 'Butcher of Mariupol'
Oligarch sanctioned for Ukraine war: "May I still have cleaners or drivers?"
Since then, he's been obsessing over questions like these: "Can I have another cleaner or a driver?" If the answer is no, he would be faced with a dilemma, because: "I don't drive myself... maybe my stepdaughter will drive me."
Together with some other oligarchs like Fridman, Awen wants to take action against the sanctions.
But even that turns out to be difficult: “British lawyers don't want to work with Russians.
I was told that it is almost impossible to change the sanctions.” In any case, he cannot use financial temptations to get the best lawyers on his side.
Ukraine war and consequences for oligarchs: "Just because you meet the president, you are sanctioned"
So Awen argues publicly.
And questions the clues - apart from the billions of pieces of evidence on his blocked accounts - that suggest a closeness to Putin: "It's very strange, just because you meet the president, you are sanctioned.
We try to stay completely out of politics.
I introduced the Alfa Group to Putin, not myself.”
The Alfa Group is a Moscow-based industrial and financial group founded in 1989 and managed by his business partner Fridman.
Awen has already resigned from the post of president of Alfa-Bank, Russia's largest private bank.
Also as CEO of the LetterOne Group, a Luxembourg-based investment company.
Joint photo: As here in 2018, Pyotr Aven (right) came very close to Russian President Vladimir Putin (left).
© IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
Sanctions in the Ukraine war: Oligarchs are no longer allowed in offices or on documents
Even the employees would now avoid him.
“They are even scared of meeting me in person.
We're very afraid of the authorities,"
Business Insider
quoted Awen as saying in an interview with the
Financial Times
.
The new LetterOne chairman Mervyn Davies even revealed that colleagues are not allowed to speak to Awen and Fridman, who are denied access to the offices and all documents.
"Legally, we can't touch the deal," explains the oligarch interviewed.
His words should make one thing clear: the West's sanctions against those loyal to Putin are having an effect.
(mg)
