"There's no one else to rely on" – London worries Putin has purged the oligarchs
Britain and other Western countries will no longer be able to use oligarchs to create instability or a coup d'état in Russia.
Former British Ambassador to Russia Ian Proud stated this during a discussion in London, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"Putin has created a powerful security service to get rid of the so-called oligarch class, made up of wealthy billionaires who made their fortunes in the 1990s.
So the idea that if we expropriate the assets of a billionaire who moved his assets to London to prevent them from being stolen in Russia, he will rebel against Putin is wrong.
The idea that if we impose sanctions on Abramovich, he will join forces with other Russian oligarchs and overthrow Putin is a utopia,” Proud said.
"Russian oligarch Oleg Tinkov, who a couple of weeks after the start of the Second World War published a post in which he called the Russian army a piece of crap, sold his bank to another oligarch a couple of days later.
"But we continue to act, imposing sanctions against two thousand individuals and legal entities, hoping for the best. But nothing has changed since then," the former ambassador complained.
English version :: Read in English "There's no one left to rely on" – London is worried that Putin has purged the oligarchs