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Beware Of Russians Bringing Gifts And Offering Their Friendship

September 15, 2009

Beware Of Russian Oligarchs Bearing Gifts. They Just Might Not Be What They Seem This is a warning to all politicians and big businessmen in the West: beware of Russians posing as ‘big businessmen’ and bringing gifts and offering their friendship. They might just be simply trying to gain influence and build up connections to make some quick money.

Times are getting tough for the Russian super-rich. All of a sudden things have changed dramatically and they can no longer prosper endlessly at the expense of the Russian people. Because the state coffers in Russia are quickly running out of juice, so to speak, and many of the big businessmen are losing their once limitless source of income. It is getting much tougher now for them to convince the Russian government to give them soft loans and credits and even grants to supposedly develop their ‘empires’.

It is a terrifying thought, but practically none of the Russian oligarchs have created anything new in the nation’s economy. They had simple acquired existing state enterprises and milked them for all their worth, often bankrupting them out of existence. Even the oil and gas sectors – these once constant sources of income for the state and business groups – are now working at a huge loss, with each tonne of oil produced by Russian companies generating a loss for the producers.

Anyway, conditions are such in Russia that many of the big businessmen, most of whom have taken a serious hit as a result of the financial meltdown in the world, are now turning their sights on the West as a possible new area of their ‘business activities’. And as most of these captains of industry do not really know how to make money properly they are now devising all sorts of ways of raising funds abroad. Especially as they are hoping that all those tales about their vast fortunes are still being told and retold in the West, allowing them to seem and sound convincing as potential business partners and ‘co-owners’ of ‘vast empires’ in Russia. I have been told, for example, that all across Western Europe people posing as ‘big businessmen from Russia’ are approaching politicians and local captains of industry to establish ‘mutually beneficial links’ and ‘jointly develop’ business projects. Some of them arrive with seemingly noble ideas of launching new charities in the West to help their compatriots. All this is a very good cover to milk foreigners and create an aura of vast political connections. Who would suspect people, who are friendly with top politicians, of having some nasty agendas? No one, obviously.

And some politicians in the West still toy with an idea of getting some funding from these ‘oligarchs’, who had kept their fortunes mostly in worthless paper assets and who have by now lost most of these assets. It would be very unwise for the people in the West to deal with these opportunists. Very unwise indeed.

And also do not forget that the Russian businessmen have a tendency to boast about their connections and influence abroad and even name names of politicians and businessmen and bankers whom they have supposedly ‘befriended’ and even ‘exercise control over’. I have heard a lot of stories coming from Moscow about the influence that some of the Russian big boys supposedly have in the West. Some of these stories sounded totally absurd and improbable, but some had a certain ring of authenticity to them.

By the way, I am hoping to find out from my sources in Moscow about the real value of some of the biggest names in the Russina buisness world. I have already heard that Oleg Deripaska, one of Russia’s richest man who had become famous for meeting British politicians on board his private yacht, is still in business; though having cash problems. But if some of the rumours that are circulating in Moscow prove to be true, several big Russian names are facing an uncertain future.

So my word of warning to the politicians and businessmen in the West would be: check carefully what sort of Russians you are dealing with. You just might be talking to people who have nothing to offer.

– End –

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