The weakening of the power of the Russian magnates took place for a long time, but it accelerated significantly after the full -scale invasion of the Russian Federation to Ukraine, the agency notes. Since that time, they have mainly preserved a limited impact on politics, and the illegitimate president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin sought to create a “new elite”, built on the basis of his military invasion.
Bloomberg gives as an example a quarrel of one of the richest people in the Russian Federation Alexei Mordashov with the Governor of the Vologda region George Filimonov, where his steel enterprise PJSC Severstal works. The plant is the largest taxpayer and the largest employer in the Vologda region. Filimonov, in an interview with the Russian media, declare that he and Severstal are “ideological disagreements”, and confused the company to blame some local investments. The governor hinted in an interview that the businessman was not enough patriotism, and criticized his “quasiliberal orientation.” Mordashov’s conflict with the governor is “an illustration of a wider tectonic shift for the magnates,” writes Bloomberg.
Also this month, the court extended the term of detention of Vadim Moshkovich, the founding billionaire Ros AGRO PLC, who is in custody in connection with the theft case. Like Mordashov, Moshkovich was once a regular participant in business meetings with Putin, the publication is noted. The prosecutors initiated dozens of cases of nationalization, and this year the court in the Moscow region froze the shares of Domodedovo Airport, owned by another billionaire – Dmitry Kamenchik.
“Billionaires have finally ceased to be oligarchs or the most influential people even in their regions,” said Alexander Prokopenko, a researcher at the Carnegie Eurasian Center in Russia. According to her, they became holders of assets and strictly depend on the will of the Kremlin.
One of the billionaires on the terms of anonymity told the agency that the Kremlin sent a powerful signal: governors must guarantee that business spends his income on investments, and not on dividends, and with emphasis on social needs. It is difficult to say “no” to anything, and complaints are not always accepted, since the Kremlin is busy with war, he said.
The senior researcher in Russia and Eurasia, the Center for Strategic and International Research, Maria Sneova told the agency that the old elites are becoming hostages of the regime against the background of the war. According to her, no one else can remain neutral.
In modern Russia, the elite, especially business clips, weaken as Putin's regime is becoming more personalized, said Nikolai Petrov, a senior researcher at the Center for New Eurasian Strategies. According to him, none of the elite is in complete safety. There was always danger, but now it has become more obvious, the expert noted.
