Russian Oligarchs Now bashing 'Tsar' Putin

It is a sure sign that all is not well in the court of Vladimir Putin when some of the country’s more prominent oligarchs dare to question the wisdom of his decision to invade Ukraine, Con Coughlin, defense editor of The Telegraph reported.

Photo Insert: In return for not involving themselves in the Russian autocrat’s political agenda, the oligarchs are, by and large, allowed to pursue their commercial interests without undue interference from the Kremlin.

The relationship between Putin and the cluster of billionaire businessmen who control a significant proportion of the country’s wealth has, historically, been conducted on a transactional basis.

In return for not involving themselves in the Russian autocrat’s political agenda, the oligarchs are, by and large, allowed to pursue their commercial interests without undue interference from the Kremlin.

Thus, high-profile oligarchs of the ilk of Roman Abramovich, the multi-billionaire owner of Chelsea football club (now up for sale), who previously served as governor of the remote Russian region of Chukotka, have been able to carry on generating wealth, confident in the knowledge that they have the Kremlin’s backing.

This elite group, though, is also well aware of the risks they run if they are foolhardy enough to involve themselves in Russian politics. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was believed at one point to be the country’s wealthiest man, discovered this to his cost when he made the mistake of taking Putin to task over rampant corruption in the highest echelons of the Russian government.

Other oligarchs who have crossed swords with Russia’s megalomaniacal leader have not been so lucky.

Boris Berezovsky, a former business associate of Abramovich who fled to London after becoming a vocal critic of Putin, was found dead in mysterious circumstances at his Berkshire home in 2013 – a death his supporters still insist was the work of Russian security agents.

By far the most high-profile oligarch to break ranks has been Mikhail Fridman, one of Russia’s richest men, who was born in the Ukrainian city of Lviv and is a Jew.

In a letter to his staff, he wrote: “I am deeply attached to Ukrainian and Russian peoples and see the current conflict as a tragedy for them both.” Khodorkovsky, who has mainly kept his silence since being released in 2013, showed no such reticence in a rare public appearance, denouncing the Russian leader as a “madman,” insisting: “We are not dealing with a sane person.”

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