The American investment bank Morgan Stanley and the elite law firm Allen & Overy, headquartered in London, helped the Russian Sergei Kolesnikov take over the “Verbluzhe” oil field in Astrakhan, in the south of the Russian Federation, which can contain 100 million barrels of oil.
This is reported by The Guardian.
Sergei Kolesnikov is a Russian oligarch who became a citizen of Malta under the "golden passport" scheme, that is, he received citizenship in exchange for investments. His fortune is estimated at $1.2 billion.
Kolesnikov got rich in the construction business. It supplies materials for the Russian war machine and for construction in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
Despite this, Kolesnikov is not under EU sanctions, only Poland applied restrictive measures against him.
While Morgan Stanley and Allen & Overy cannot be accused of breaking any laws or regulations, their work on Kolesnikov clearly demonstrates how the biggest and most trusted companies continue to work with oligarchs and their businesses that profit from the Russian defense industry and the war with Ukraine, despite international efforts to isolate the Putin regime and its beneficiaries.
Kolesnikovʼs company Inflection Management, registered in Cyprus, is one of the creditors of the Astrakhan Oil and Gas Corporation (ANC) and in 2012 provided a credit line for more than $70 million — it was concluded by Morgan Stanley, which owned the majority of shares in ANCʼs subsidiary of the Russian drilling firm Southern Oil Company ".
Allen & Overy, which is currently in the process of merging with US law firm Shearman & Sterling, announced in March 2022 the closure of its Moscow office due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis.
In December 2022, Morgan Stanley stated: "We are not opening any new business in Russia, and our activities there are limited to helping global clients resolve and repay existing obligations."