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Sanctioned oligarch Mikhail Fridman has returned to Moscow for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Fridman, who had remained in London despite western sanctions against him since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion, arrived in Moscow from Israel over the weekend, according to two people familiar with the matter. He had left the UK for Israel last month, they said.
The oligarch, who is sanctioned by the UK, EU and US, had been considering visiting Russia for months, but accelerated those plans after Hamas began its attack on Israel on Saturday, one of the people said.
Fridman did not discuss his arrival with the Kremlin and intends to return to Israel once the conflict passes, the person said.
Fridman declined to comment. The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ukraine-born Fridman is among the few oligarchs to have offered even guarded criticism of Putin’s invasion, saying in the early weeks of the conflict that it was a “tragedy” and that war “can never be the answer”.
Fridman has contested the western sanctions to which he and his company, Alfa Group, have been subject. He offered to back Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy while lobbying western powers to remove him from the sanctions list. He even solicited letters from several members of Russia’s opposition — including one activist in prison for opposing the war — to plead for the EU to lift the punitive measures.
Fridman’s departure from the UK and return to Moscow underlines how Russia’s elite are learning to live with the war even as it ruins their global business empires and lavish lifestyles in the west.
“For Putin, this is a huge victory if Fridman’s in Moscow,” one of the people familiar with the matter said. “This was a big mistake by the west — pushing us to go back. [Fridman] will try to be in Israel, but it will be very difficult. He has no money, no apartment, nothing — he can’t even open a bank account.”
Though the founders of Alfa told friends they had no intention of returning to Russia, the sanctions eventually prompted German Khan, Fridman’s business partner, to move back to Moscow from London last year.
Petr Aven, another Alfa shareholder, decamped for Latvia, leaving Fridman to fight the UK sanctions and an investigation from the National Crime Agency, which began when more than 50 officers raided his £65mn mansion in Highgate, north London, last year.
The NCA scaled back its investigation into Fridman shortly afterwards and dropped the final remaining charge in September. It also partially rolled back freezing orders on Aven’s accounts as part of a separate investigation in May, allowing him to access about £400,000 in funds.
Additional reporting by Jane Croft in London