Billionaire Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska says destroying Ukraine ‘would be a colossal mistake’ and predicts there will be no winners from Putin’s ‘war’ in rare break with Kremlin
- Oleg Deripaska criticised Russia’s ‘war’ on Ukraine in rare break with Kremlin
- Destroying Ukraine ‘would be colossal mistake including for us’, he said
- Said it is ‘obvious’ that sanctions are hurting Russia more than the West
- Kremlin insists sanctions have backfired and has banned any mention of ‘war’
Russian billionaire oligarch Oleg Deripaska has said destroying ‘would be a colossal mistake’ and predicted there will be no winners from Putin’s ‘war’ in a rare break with the official Kremlin line.
The 54-year-old, who made his fortune as founder of aluminium giant Rusal, said it is ‘obvious’ that sanctions are hurting Russia more than the West – defying Moscow’s argument that financial penalties have backfired.
‘Now we are sitting and waiting for victory. Victory of what? Whose victory?’ Deripaska asked journalists at a press conference in Moscow.
He also used the word ‘war’ several times to describe fighting in Ukraine, a word that was effectively banned by Putin who prefers the term ‘special military operation.’
Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire, has hit out at the ‘war’ in Ukraine – predicting there will be no winners and that his country’s economy will tank due to sanctions
Russia is now into its fifth month of fighting in Ukraine after what was supposed to be a days-long ‘special operation’ quickly swelled into all-out conflict
Though he was careful to avoid criticising the Kremlin or Putin directly, Deripaska’s words never-the-less represent a rare public break with the government by someone inside the country.
‘I’m troubled by how quickly we abandoned everything that was achieved (economically) in the 90s, then we abandoned everything that we achieved in the 2000s,’ he told reporters.
‘And now we are sitting and waiting for victory. Victory of what? Whose victory? I think that destroying Ukraine would be a colossal mistake, including for us.’
Rising levels of prosperity had been linked to the development of Russia’s private sector and building ties with the rest of Europe as Russia’s main economic partner, he said.
But it was ‘obvious’ that Western sanctions were now hurting Russia more than Europe, said Deripaska, founder of Russian aluminium giant Rusal.
That contrasts with the argument repeatedly voiced by Putin that sanctions are rebounding on Western economies, triggering their highest inflation in decades, and that Russia will emerge stronger and more self-sufficient.
Deripaska – himself under sanctions from the United States, Britain and the European Union – said, however, that he had underestimated how stable Russia’s economy would prove to be.
Nor did he see any threat to its political leadership.
‘There is no potential for regime change in Russia. The opposition preferred beautiful European views and retreated from the life of the country,’ Deripaska said.
Many of Russia’s leading opposition figures, especially associates of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, have fled to other European countries to escape being prosecuted.
Deripaska, 54, is one of a group of businessmen known as oligarchs who control large parts of the economy, especially in energy and commodities, and have been able to preserve their fortunes on condition that they stay out of politics.
Putin calls the invasion is actually a ‘special military operation’ to ‘demilitarise’ and ‘denazify’ the country, a line rejected by Kyiv and the West as baseless propaganda.
The Kremlin on Tuesday repeated its assertions that the operation was going and vowed to continue until Kyiv surrender.
Meanwhile the G7 group of the world’s most powerful democracies met in Germany to send a message that they remain united behind Ukraine’s embattled government.
And, ahead of a key meeting of the NATO allies, US President Joe Biden and fellow leaders pledged military aid for Kyiv and economic pain for Moscow.
But President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin was unmoved, warning that Ukraine’s forces’ only option was to lay down their arms in the face of the Russian invasion.
‘The Ukrainian side can stop everything before the end of today,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
‘An order for the nationalist units to lay down their arms is necessary,’ he said, adding that Kyiv had to fulfil a list of Moscow’s demands.
Russian missiles destroyed a shopping mall and part of a factory in Kremenchuk on Monday, killing at least 18 civilians in what world leaders condemned as a ‘war crime’
Smoke rises from the ruins of the Amstor shopping mall in the city of Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, after it was struck by long-range Russian guided missiles
The consequences of Russia’s four-month-old invasion were on display in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, where shaken civilians recounted Monday’s missile strike on a shopping mall.
‘Everything burned, really everything, like a spark to a touchpaper. I heard people screaming. It was horror,’ witness Polina Puchintseva told AFP.
All that was left of the shopping centre – scene of at least 18 deaths – was charred debris, chunks of blackened walls and green lettering from a smashed store front.
Russia claims its missile salvo was aimed at an arms depot – but none of the civilians who talked to AFP knew of any weapons store in the neighbourhood.
And, outside Russia, the latest carnage sparked only Ukrainian fury and western solidarity.
‘Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime,’ the G7 leaders said in a statement, condemning the ‘abominable attack’.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky declared on his social media channels: ‘Only total insane terrorists, who should have no place on Earth, can strike missiles at civilian objects.
‘Russia must be recognised as a state sponsor of terrorism. The world can and therefore must stop Russian terror,’ he added.
At their summit in the German Alps, the G7 leaders did not go so far as to brand Putin a terrorist – but they vowed that Russia, already under tough sanctions, would face more economic pain.
‘The G7 stands united in its support for Ukraine,’ German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters.
‘We will continue to keep up and drive up the economic and political costs of this war for President Putin and his regime.’
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