Russia: When oligarchs admit to their crimes

Stanislav Belkovsky

Moskovsky Komsomolets

Russian oligarchs are finally telling the truth about how they stole their way to wealth, said Stanislav Belkovsky. These confessions are motivated not by remorse but rather by greed. Boris Berezovsky’s lawsuit against Roman Abramovich in a London court—Berezovsky claims Abramovich owes him nearly $6 billion—is shedding light on the murky dealings the two had with the Kremlin during the 1990s, when former Soviet state industries were sold to unscrupulous robber barons. In their bickering testimony, we’ve learned that these men didn’t put up a penny of their own money to buy the oil company Sibneft, but got it through corrupt loans at the bargain price of $100 million. Just a few years later, they sold it back to the state for more than $13 billion.

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“Why would they incriminate themselves in this way?” They would never do so in Russian courts. But they have a groveling respect for British courts and don’t want to perjure themselves. Both oligarchs now live in Britain and “are ready to say all kinds of terrible things against themselves” to keep from getting thrown out of the country. If this keeps up, maybe we’ll even find out who poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium in London in 2006.