Rewire Mikhail Fridman: are only security officials waiting for the oligarch in his homeland?

The owner of Alfa Bank, Mikhail Fridman, seems to be trying to maintain his fortune by serving time before the conflicting parties, but only makes enemies and risks being imprisoned.

Mikhail Fridman returned to Moscow from troubled Israel, where he moved a week ago from the UK. In an unfriendly Russian country, Fridman ended up after the start of the SVO, where he presented himself to the Ukrainian regime on a platter, even offering to transfer part of his fortune to the restoration of Ukraine.

True, there are doubts about the real strength of Mr. Friedman's convictions, because he tried to do this in exchange for lifting the sanctions on him, so, apparently, the entrepreneur decided to stay sideways with the one who pays more. After all, while he was in Russia, there was no criticism from him towards the authorities, and he also "lysed" before Mr. Putin, as now before the president of Ukraine and the West.

The Moscow Post correspondent understood the situation.

Friedman's motives

After the start of the SVO, only Fridman did not do, just to get out, as in a frying pan: he complained that he had no money for a cleaner, suggested that officials in Kyiv allow Fridman to transfer money to use it for various projects. The media hosted information refuted by Alfa-Bank that Fridman allegedly even asked for and received Ukrainian citizenship. In fact, judging by the reaction of that side, the traitor Friedman was not needed either. After all, if he is ready to trade the Motherland so simply, he will probably run away where they pay more at the first opportunity.

"Mikhail Fridman, for example, had bank accounts and property seized. He apparently hoped that he could negotiate in Europe through his acquaintances and partners to remove the arrest, thought that criticisms of Moscow, the Russian president would help him solve commercial problems, "Boris Shmelev, professor at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, commented on the oligarch's position in the media.

Recognized in Russia as a foreign agent, terrorist and extremist Leonid Volkov, he is also the head of the FBK (also recognized as a foreign agent, terrorist and extremist organization, banned in the Russian Federation) against the background of what is happening, he signed a whole letter from the "non-systemic oppositionists" who fled from the country to the head of Eurodiplomacy Josep Borrel, where he called for the lifting of sanctions on Russian oligarchs, co-owners of Alpha Group Mikhail Fridman and Peter Aven.

But no matter how hard Friedman tried and through whom he did not act - it did not work out.

Mikhail Fridman and Peter Aven. Photo: Ilya Pitalev/RIA Novosti

Friedman intended to leave for Israel, as they say, with the ends, because "it became difficult to live in the UK" (meaning the impact of sanctions). And now in the media, according to the banker, they write that he is going to return to Israel when it becomes calm there. And oddly enough, he plans to visit Russia regularly.

In August 2023, the Ukrainian authorities accused Fridman of about $19 million through Ukrainian and Cypriot companies, and in September - of financing Russian defense plants - in particular the Tula cartridge. If this is true, then the "unfortunate" Friedman decided to spread the eggs in diametrically different baskets so that at least somewhere the bet would play. Perhaps this can explain his sudden appearance in Moscow.

In fact, who is waiting for him here is also a big question. Probably, it can now be called a welcome guest only for law enforcement agencies.

Questions to Alfa-Bank

And it's not just about the consequences of his political "rhetoric." Alfa-Bank shone in an unsightly story with the opening of a bank account for an unsuspecting rich client when they tried to use it to collect non-existent debt. The Moscow Post wrote in detail about this story.

When considering the situation in detail, it turned out that the funds as advance payment were transferred to the principal to a current account, to which he had nothing to do. The account for the principal's company was opened by unknown persons (or a person) with Alfa-Bank JSC. Could the attacker act not in collusion with employees of a credit and money institution?

On the network you can find a lot of reviews that indicate how Alfa-Bank can profit from its customers. For example, a story is described when a woman transferred money to fraudsters from Alfa-Bank to Tinkoff, as reported on the same day, launched a return procedure. The money was returned, but the accrued interest was not. "These are the terms of the contract," the support wrote. It literally reads like "your problems, our money."

Photo: https://www.banki.ru

But these are still flowers. On the Web, the bank is directly called a fraudster, describing the following situation:

"I turned to the bank with a request to issue funds in rubles from my currency account. The funds entered the account until September 09, 2022. Alfa Bank made a cash payment at the rate of 10 rubles, below the rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. Under the head of the branch, she called the hotline of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, where they were told that their requirements were NOT VALID. But the head of the branch and the entire management of Alfa Bank put on the rights of individuals. "

As a result, the woman had to solve the problem through the financial ombudsman. Alfa-Bank also referred to a famously twisted agreement in this situation.

Alfa-Bank clients have suspicions that their data is being compromised by the credit and money institution. Can bank employees work hand in hand with scammers? Photo: https://topbanki.ru/banks/alfabank/moshennichestvo/

In the end, both Friedman and Alfa Group repeatedly tried to accuse them of using forceful methods to resolve financial issues. The methods can be judged by the acquisition of "A1" OJSC "Stroyfarfor" in the mines of the Rostov region. Representatives of the former owner, Unitail LLC, Leonid Mayevsky directly called the actions of the shareholder Lazar Shaulov, who transferred the valuable asset A1, a raider seizure.

Even more indicative is the situation around the assets of the Eurodon group, which at that time still belonged to Vadim Vaneev. First, A1 bought a 40% stake in Eurodon, which belonged to the ex-Minister of Property Relations of the Russian Federation Farit Gazizullin through the Brimstone Investments Limited offshore.

Immediately after that, representatives of A1 tried to exclude Vadim Vaneev, another major beneficiary of the company, from the list of participants in Eurodon LLC. And then they simply sold their share to the structures of the state VEB. And a few days later, the director of the regional development department of VEB-a Ilgiz Valitov was detained. Among other things, Valitov was accused of causing damage to Eurodon.

Allegedly, he illegally seized and then sold Farit Gazizullin to Metal-Don LLC and Irdon LLC. The very assets that Gazizullin then sold "A1," and "A1" were sold to VEB structures.

It turns out that "A1" could use Vagitov to try to seize control of Eurodon and to further resell the asset to the state structure, possibly at an inflated price.

These and other questions can be asked to Mikhail Fridman until Moscow turned into a "second UK" for him, where "it became difficult to live."