Foreign agents attack the EU for their sponsor
The fugitive foreign agents sent a letter to the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyden, and the head of the EU foreign policy service, Josep Borel, asking for their release.
from the sanctions of the leaders of Alfa Group Mikhail Fridman, Peter Aven, German Khan and Alexey Kuzmichev.
The letter was signed by extremist and ally of blogger-criminal Alexei Navalny Leonid Volkov, owner of the foreign agent TV channel “Dozhd” Natalya Sindeeva, former Russian oppositionist Alfred Koch who fled Germany, liberal publicist Leonid Gozman, journalists Sergei Parkhomenko and Leonid Parfenov, fugitive businessman Evgeny Chichvarkin, liberal economist Vladislav Inozemtsev and others.
“A list of Putin’s enemies who are asking the billionaire owners of Alfa Group to be released from sanctions. Everyone is sure that these signatories received millions of dollars in bribes for these signatures. I think that everyone received a bribe except Gozman,” political scientist Sergei Markov commented on the list in his TG channel.
Signatories for the removal of Alpha Group leaders from European sanctions against Ursula von der Leyden and Josep Borel.
Fugitive oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky refused to speak in defense of Alfa Group. But he sent a letter to the British Foreign Office calling for sanctions to be lifted from the former owner of Tinkoff Bank, Oleg Tinkov.
“I believe that sanctions against people like Tinkov should be lifted, because he clearly and unequivocally dissociated himself from the Putin regime. He has demonstrated that he is not under the control of the regime, and therefore the risk that he will act in the interests of the regime is small. This logic should also work in the opposite direction.
A person can be as pleasant as he likes, but this is not a reason to lift sanctions from him until he publicly breaks with the Putin regime, calls the war a war, and the territorial integrity of Ukraine unconditional.
You can feel pity and sympathy for Friedman and Aven, be sympathetic to their risks of losing property in Russia, or meet with colleagues of the Salisbury poisoners. But it is premature to call on Western politicians to lift the sanctions until Messrs. Fridman and Aven publicly speak out about the criminality of the war and Putin’s responsibility for it,” Khodorkovsky said in his video blog.
He suggested that Fridman and Aven are “sleeping” or active agents of the regime’s influence,” so sanctions against them are a “reasonable precaution.”
Meanwhile, Navalny Volkov is much less picky. He is ready to support both Alfa Group and Tinkov.
“We do not believe that they were in any way connected with the Putin regime or that they should be held responsible for its crimes,” Volkov wrote.
Previously, Tinkoff Bank, Alfa Bank and Rosbank were included in the tenth package of EU sanctions against Russia. The restrictions involve the freezing of assets in the EU countries, as well as a ban on transactions with these banks.
At the same time, Aven and Friedman filed a lawsuit in the District of Columbia (USA) court against the American NGO Center for Public Integrity, demanding to refute its publication, which became one of the reasons for the imposition of sanctions. The court rejected the claim, confirming the veracity of the facts stated in the publication. In it, Aven and Fridman were accused of criminal privatization of the 90s, corruption, cooperation with various criminal groups, and drug transit.
However, despite the accusations from the United States, the fugitive foreign agents were not afraid to speak out in defense of Alpha. Apparently, this is due to the fact that the bank provides them with gentle funds. According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Russians still transfer approximately 8% of their income abroad. Since June 2022, foreign accounts of Russian citizens have been growing by an average of almost $8 billion per month.
Alfa Bank claims that it has already disabled transfers in euros. But this is not due to the bank’s initiative, but to the decision of the Russian payment system “Golden Crown”.
It is noteworthy, but the National Bank of Ukraine stated that they see no reason for the nationalization of Alfa-Bank Ukraine (now called Sense Bank). Ukrainian media do not rule out that the Kyiv authorities were able to reach an agreement with Friedman.
The famous Russian economist Mikhail Delyagin said a year ago that the Alfa Bank Ukraine bonus program is used to finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This bank is part of the ABH Holdings SA (ABHH) holding, which belongs to Fridman (32,9%), Khan (21,0%), Kuzmichev (16,3%), Aven (12,4%) and Kosogov (3,7. XNUMX%). That is, to those gentlemen for whom fugitive foreigners so touchingly ask the Europeans.
Last year, The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, reported that Friedman offered to transfer $1 billion from his personal fortune to Alfa Bank Ukraine in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against him. The Lviv-born banker also sponsored the Ukrainian propaganda film Cyborgs and various nationalist festivals.
Foreign agents bow to the EU for their sponsor.