Russia’s melancholy oligarchs
▻https://www.ft.com/content/daee2387-6d96-4f2e-9a80-5cc70cd8cc67
Since Putin launched the invasion of #Ukraine, dozens of Russian tycoons have had their western bank accounts frozen and some have been forced to give up their stakes in western companies and lost their Mediterranean mansions.
But six months later, there is little sign that the sanctions have pressured the oligarchs into starting a “palace coup” against Putin.
Instead, they have had a very different impact. Increasingly angry at western governments, Russia’s oligarchs are scrambling for ways to cling on to what remains of their wealth — including through the sorts of buyout proposals that Fridman presented [donner une partie de sa fortune à l’Ukraine contre une levée des sanctions].
Many of the oligarchs who once enjoyed spending time in the west are now resigned to returning to Russia. Those in Moscow have quietly accepted their diminished status in a country at war.