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Statement from Roman Abramovich

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Re: Statement from Roman Abramovich

#51
post #24

> The foundation will be for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine. Whoever formulated this is a PR genius. The West will read it as "the [Russian aggression] war in Ukraine". Putin can be made believe it meant "the [Ukrainian nazi government] war in [the Donbas region of] Ukraine".

They don't call it a war in Russia, it's a "special military operation". Calling it a war is perhaps a small step away from Putin for Abramovich, or a mistake.

Ok, you make a good point.

Re: Statement from Roman Abramovich

#52
post #43

Context for people unfamiliar with football/soccer: Roman Abramovich is a Russian oligarch who grew rich in the 90s by buying state owned companies at rigged auctions. He was close to the previous President Yeltsin and allegedly recommended that Yeltsin appoint Putin as his successor. His relations with Putin have remained cordial with Putin unlike some other oligarchs like Mikhail Khordokovsky, who crossed Putin and…

Thank you for this.

Re: Statement from Roman Abramovich

#54
post #4

>Moreover, I have instructed my team to set up a charitable foundation where all net proceeds from the sale will be donated. The foundation will be for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine. That's quite the statement coming from one of Russia's biggest oligarch.

He even went as far as calling it a war. That's considered borderline treason in Russia by now.

"Liberation mission" is Vladimir's preferred newspeak.

Re: Statement from Roman Abramovich

#55
post #4

>Moreover, I have instructed my team to set up a charitable foundation where all net proceeds from the sale will be donated. The foundation will be for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine. That's quite the statement coming from one of Russia's biggest oligarch.

He even went as far as calling it a war. That's considered borderline treason in Russia by now.

Maybe, and I'm guessing, he is like many Russians and hoping for an overhaul of their Putin-and-cronies government.

Re: Statement from Roman Abramovich

#56
post #41

It's creepy to see how quickly people turned on Russian nationals living abroad. What exactly is an "oligarch" anyway? Someone with money? Someone with links to Putin? What kinds of links? I don't think punishing rich Russians living abroad even with some connection to Putin or the Russian government is helpful. It's likely illegal and the kind of thing that we'll look back upon as excessive.

"Oligarchs" are people who were friends with Boris Yeltsin in the 90s. USSR was collapsing, government upheaval, etc. In this period, the government of Russia sold off state owned enterprises for extremely cheap prices, fractions of a penny on the dollar, to Russian nationals. The state owned enterprises were things like mines, shipping companies, iron smelting, etc. The people who bought these state owned enterprise…

You might not be using it "as a generic slur for billionaire" but lots of other people are.

Further, according to many people, every rich person is a "beneficiary in a kleptocratic system".

Re: Statement from Roman Abramovich

#57
post #50
post #41

It's creepy to see how quickly people turned on Russian nationals living abroad. What exactly is an "oligarch" anyway? Someone with money? Someone with links to Putin? What kinds of links? I don't think punishing rich Russians living abroad even with some connection to Putin or the Russian government is helpful. It's likely illegal and the kind of thing that we'll look back upon as excessive.

It is no more illegal than waging an unprovoked war on a smaller neighboring country. So, fair play.

Yes, this is the attitude I'm criticizing.

Re: Statement from Roman Abramovich

#58
post #3

For those of us that don't follow Premier League Football, what's the context here?

A Russian "oligach" who like all Putin oligachs, is a way for Putin to launder money, is in reality also a way for Putin to corrupt and influence via soft power. This Putin money launderer, purchased a London Football Club as a way to project soft russian power to corrupt London's political and business elite.

He's now being effectively forced to sell it.

Re: Statement from Roman Abramovich

#59
post #34

This war just makes 0 sense to me. Are things so horrible in Russia they feel they need to invade and subjugate another country? I realize you could make the same argument for the US invasion of Afganistan, or Iraq, or many many other idiotic blunders the US political class has made to undermine the US's ability to weigh in on these sorts of situations. I suppose the difference is that Ukraine is a healthy liberal de…

I've found this article interesting https://www.salon.com/2022/02/26/the-ukraine-and-how-we-got-...

It is interesting in the sense that it fails completely to mention the multiple countries Russia has invaded over the past 25 years. It treats NATO's actions as happening completely in a bubble, ignoring Putin's own provocations. It also assumes the countries that have joined NATO aren't deciding to join, but instead being consumed by NATO.
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