WSJ: Russian oligarch Fridman offered $1 billion for Ukrainian bank in exchange for sanctions relief

Author:
Oleg Panfilovych
Date:

Russian businessman Mykhailo Fridman offered to invest $1 billion of his personal wealth in a Ukrainian bank, which he co-founded. In exchange for investments, the oligarch asked the British government to remove sanctions from him.

The Wall Street Journal writes about it.

The oligarch is the founder of Alfa Bank.

Alfa Bank Ukraine, which is part of the Fridman group, works in Ukraine. It changed its name to Sense Bank in August.

According to the U.S. officials, Fridmanʼs proposal is one of a series of statements that owners and executives of companies on the sanctions list are "quietly" making to Western authorities as those countries wage a campaign to inflict economic damage on Russia in response to its war against Ukraine.

In a comment, Fridman himself denied that he had made such a proposal. "The United Kingdom does not justify any evasion of sanctions," the British Foreign Ministry noted.