Russian billionaires, co-owners of Alfa Bank, Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, told Bloomberg that their billion-dollar investments in the West were a mistake.
Petr Aven told the publication about a three-hour interrogation by British police during his flight from London airport in July last year. According to the businessman, one of the law enforcement officers asked why he and his partners invested billions in the West and opened his main office in the United Kingdom.
“By mistake!” Aven replied.
Mijaíl Fridman, for his part, also stated that investing in England was wrong. In a telephone conversation with the agency, the billionaire said that he was “expelled” from the country.
“Today, the fact that we invested in England seems like a colossal mistake,” he said.
Last month it became known that Mikhail Fridman, who lived in the United Kingdom, moved to Israel. And due to the armed conflict that broke out in the Middle East region, the businessman returned to Moscow. The High Court in London then ruled that Friedman was banned from returning to the UK.
Friedman and Aven are subject to US, British and European sanctions. Both billionaires reiterated that they do not understand the reasons for their inclusion on the sanctions lists.
According to Aven, Western businessmen and politicians are equally responsible for “strengthening the Russian regime” as “the so-called Russian oligarchs.”
Commenting on Mikhail Fridman’s return to the country, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, proposed abandoning the term “oligarch.”
“This is a completely erroneous interpretation: this is an entrepreneur, a businessman, a great businessman,” Peskov expressed alternatives to the common term.
Author:
Natalia Gormaleva
Source: RB
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