From The Asia Times, March 17:
They expect Putin to issue an official decree that properties privatized since 1991 be returned to the Russian state, top bankers say
Leading Russian oligarchs such as aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska, Swiss-based oil baron Viktor Vekselberg, and nickel king Vladimir Potanin have all but resigned themselves to the likelihood that President Vladimir Putin will soon decree a re-nationalization of their domestic holdings.
High-level banking and legal sources who have worked with all the major oligarchs since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 say the overwhelming consensus among oligarchs is that Putin will soon issue an official decree announcing that properties privatized since 1991 be returned to the Russian state.
“Nationalization is not a question of if but when,” one top banker said.
United Company Rusal’s controlling shareholder, Oleg Derispaska, has already set in motion a spin-off of all non-Russian-based assets into a separate company to avoid an upcoming nationalization.
Already sanctioned by the US and the UK, Deripaska is considered to have consistently sought the closest ties with the Kremlin, from marrying Boris Yeltsin’s granddaughter, Polina Yumasheva, to cheerleading Putin’s economic agenda up to the pharaonic, US$50 billion Sochi Olympic Games.
Even the most Western of oligarchs, Viktor Vekselberg, seems set to lose all his Russian assets not only in Russia itself but also in the West, notwithstanding becoming a Swiss citizen and his Renova Group headquarters being discreetly nestled on the ultra-prestigious Klaus Strasse 4 in Zurich.
Vekselberg made his fortune by being the major shareholder of Russian oil group TNK with fellow oligarchs such Len Blavatnik, now a US citizen, and Alfa Bank founder Mikhail Fridman.
Vladimir Potanin, the owner of the world’s largest nickel mining group, Norilsk Nickel, gave an interview to Reuters warning Putin not to go back to 1917 by seizing foreign owned assets as the Bolsheviks did a 100 years ago....
....MUCH MORE
This is pretty much the end game from the scenario in Wednesday's "While The West Attempts To Rouse The Oligarchs Against Putin, It May Actually Be Assisting Him To Sideline Oligarchic Power".
