According to journalists, the lifting of international restrictions is actively lobbied by Russian oppositionists Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Leonid Volkov, who consider the imposition of sanctions a “mistake”.
Russian oligarchs Oleg Tinkov and Mikhail Fridman are trying to get their names removed from Western sanctions lists. In this they are supported by Russian oppositionists Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Leonid Volkov, writes Bloomberg.
The former owner of Tinkoff Bank, Oleg Tinkov, sent a letter to the British Foreign Office urging him to lift sanctions due to the fact that he “left the Russian Federation and does not support the Putin regime.”
The oligarch said that he considers it right to impose restrictions on people associated with the Russian president or supporting the war in Ukraine. Tinkov stressed that he does not belong to this category of people.
“The removal of sanctions from me would be fair and would send a signal that Western sanctions are not aimed at all Russians, but only at those who support Putin and his invasion,” the businessman said in a letter.
In turn, Russian businessman and oppositionist Mikhail Khodorkovsky said that adding Tinkov to the sanctions list was a mistake. According to Khodorkovsky, the lifting of restrictions should be due to the public position of a person regarding the military aggression of the Russian Federation in Ukraine and the Putin regime.
The authors of the publication note that the owner of Alfa Group, Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman, also tried to achieve the lifting of sanctions earlier.
The head of the Alexei Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation, Leonid Volkov, claims that Fridman and his business partners are calling for sanctions relief, as the oligarch publicly called the events in Ukraine a “tragedy”. At the same time, the businessman was not seen criticizing Vladimir Putin.
“Only if there is an exit strategy will the sanctions be effective. Otherwise, people have nowhere to run but back to Moscow, where they become even more dependent on Putin. They need to be presented with a clear option – do this and that, and the sanctions will be lifted,” argues the politician’s position.
Volkov also sent a letter to the EU, in which he stated the need to exclude entrepreneurs from the Russian Federation who condemn military aggression from the sanctions list. In his opinion, the sanctions affected some “conscientious businessmen” who had nothing to do with the crimes of the RF Armed Forces in Ukraine.
Recall that on January 21, former high-ranking FBI officer Charles McGonigal and court interpreter Sergei Shestakov were arrested in the United States, who colluded with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, trying to get sanctions lifted from him.
In December last year, Bloomberg also wrote that Russian businessmen Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, German Khan and Gennady Timchenko and their wife filed lawsuits with the European Court regarding the EU’s requirement to declare property within six weeks. It was reported that the oligarchs feared the confiscation of villas and yachts.
