how the russian oligarch abramovich is connected with those who are called putin's purses, we talk about it on the air of bbc news ukraine live from london, i'm yevgenia shedlovska. the bbc established an alleged financial connection between a russian oligarch. roman abramovich and vladimir putin. so, today we will show the bbc's investigation about the russian oligarch roman abramovich. investigative journalists discovered a money trail that links him to two people who are called vladimir putin's wallets, that is, those who believed to secretly own money and assets from him. name abramovich has denied

having financial ties to the russian president, and abramovich did not respond to the bbc's request for comment on the investigation. but who is roman abramovich? roman abramovich became one of the most famous russian oligarchs in britain after he bought london's chelsea football club in 2003. in early 2022, when russia launched a full-scale invasion of ukraine, britain and the european union introduced a prote. abramovich sanctions. the eu then declared that abramovich had privileged access to the russian president and maintained very good relations with him. this connection with the russian leader helped him preserve his considerable fortune. at the beginning of this year, roman abramovich challenged eu sanctions in the courts. by the way, the united states did not introduce sanctions against abramovich in the us, as they believe that he still owns significant assets. and in general, abramovich's fortune is estimated at nine. billions of dollars. now declassified

documents from cyprus testify to the probable financial connection between abramovich and putin. a secret deal worth 40 million dollars that connects abramovich with putin's wallets. here is the investigation on the bbc website. what is this secret agreement? journalists and investigators discovered her as a result of the leak of secret documents from cyprus. the agreement was concluded in 2010. shares of the great russian. advertising company national for less than their real value were transferred from companies ultimately owned by the zabramovych-related trust to two members of putin's inner circle, and they ended up receiving millions of dollars in dividends. according to confidential documents, one of the participants in this secret agreement was cellist serhiy roldugin. he is the artistic director of the house of music in st. petersburg. and the second husband is oleksandr plekhov, ex. a biochemist who

became a businessman, also from st. petersburg. roldugin, pictured in this photo, and plekhov are considered close to the russian president and are called putin's wallets. by the way, i wonder how much money putin has. the declared salary of putin as the president of russia in 2021 year was slightly more than 100,000 dollars. however, according to unconfirmed data, his fortune can be from 125 to 200 billion dollars hidden in a whole network of front companies and in the accounts of friends. in general, after russia's full-scale invasion of ukraine, many russians believed to be close to president putin's financial assets have come under eu sanctions. this had direct consequences for those who had investments in cyprus. so, regarding this investigation, the russian oligarch, billionaire, roman abramovich, for the last 20 years from... gave that

has ties to russian president vladimir putin. he continued to deny this even after britain and the eu council, but not the united states, imposed sanctions on him last year. sanctions because of his closeness to the russian leader and allegedly because of receiving benefits from the kremlin regime. abramovich sued to overturn eu sanctions, but now an investigation by bbc news nightight and the bureau of investigative journalism has uncovered new evidence of an alleged financial link between abramovich. the most famous in the west russian oligarch. his name did not leave the newspaper columns for two decades. he is known as the owner of sports clubs, yachts, works of art and real estate. but in february 22, everything changed for roman abramovich. it was unprovoked, this is

what russian president vladimir putin threw at ukraine. abramovich, associated with putin, who is conducting a barbaric and disgusting attack on the people. in march 2022, the government of great britain and the european union imposed sanctions on abramovich, froze assets and prohibited travel. it was argued that he supported putin's regime and had profits from it. but abramovich denied this and in every possible way rejected serious financial ties with putin. so, can we say that this case is an example of rough justice, or that this oligarch became a victim of the system. in search of an answer, we went from london to cyprus, talked to politicians, it is like sorting onions on the ball, financial experts, it is difficult for me to believe in an innocent transaction, former kremlin insiders when he went to government premises, everyone stood up and

anti-corruption fighters. oligarchs should not use cyprus to support putin's dirty wars. our trip began with an analysis of leaked documents by an international consortium of investigative journalists as part of the cypress confidential investigation. allegations of financial political ties between roman abramovich and vladimir putin have been circulating for many years, but the bbc news program found the bureau of investigative journalism found documents that seem to confirm it. this is new material which confirms the validity of sanctions against great britain and the eu and questions whether the united states should do the same. exactly. so what exactly is the financial connection between abramovich and putin managed to establish newsnight bbc verify and the bureau of investigative journalism. roman abramovich was a beneficiary of the trust, which through a number of other front companies owned the cyprus-registered front

companies finoto and grassora. in 2003, these two companies each purchased 12.5 shares of the russian monopoly television advertising firm international by order. low price only $130,000. by 2010, the companies received $30 million in dividends from video international, but at the end of the same year, finota sold its profitable share to video international, the rest to the cypriot front company metmedia network a grossora sold its share to another cypriot front company trading. although videoo international reported revenues of $3 billion at the time, the shares were sold for $20 million each, a price that appears to be below their true market value. nominal the beneficial owner of the medmedi network was serhiy roldugin, and the nominal beneficial owner was oleksandr plekhov. roldugin is a russian cellist and conductor, but

he has known putin since childhood and is even the godfather of his daughter. the swiss government called it putin's wallet. the british government called plekhov another close friend of putin. so this scheme suggests that abramovich actually transferred 25% of the shares of a russian company with multi-million revenues to individuals close to putin at what appears to be a below-market price. abramovich had good connections in influential circles. when he entered the government premises, everyone stood up. volodymyr milup, in the early 2000s, was the deputy minister of energy of russia, now he is in exile and opposes putin's policies. i see how, brick by brick, the international investigative community is building a fairly reliable base of evidence linking abramovich to putin. i believe that the desire to hide this was deliberate, because putin needed such people in the international

arena who nominally have no ties to him, but at the same time would be very loyal and could be used to advance his interests abroad, so in that regard, they... both did everything to hide the connections between them, and it's great that the investigative community continues to expose that. we showed our findings to tom kitzing, an experienced financial and security analyst. they can argue that this is just a normal transaction between two parties, as far as it is likely. i find it hard to believe that this is an innocent transaction between two parties, firstly because the people involved already... have previous experience with this kind of equipment, and secondly, this is a kind of mechanism that we have seen in many cases before specifically for the transfer of valuable assets between individuals connected to the kremlin and the kremlin itself, so, judging by this, this is not an innocent transaction at all.

their friendship has been known for a long time, but this confirmation is very important, because it helps to get to the bottom of things, it's like cutting an onion into layers, although people don't really want to delve into it, but it's information. that you found is the clearest indicator yet that everything the government has done is absolutely legally valid the existence of such a connection. so how is this connection. you have to follow the money, and the road will lead you to a sunny island in the mediterranean, famous for hidden money. so, how did we get this important information, confirmation of the apparent financial connection between roman abramovich and vladimir putin. we learned this thanks to the leak of documents of one cypriot firm, merit service, which looks after international financial assets. why cyprus? and because over the past two decades, cyprus, or

as it is also called, moscow in mediterranean, played a key role in receiving russian money and distributing it around the world in such a way that it lost contact with its true owners, and the problem is that the legal and accounting services of an eu member state helped to hide the connection between the most famous russian oligarch and president in the west. in my opinion, this is the first time we see a much bigger picture of the scale of this operation, the scale of the connection between cyprus and russia, the importance of cyprus as a member of the eu and a member of the eurozone, and how critical it is for russian interests. what we see is an operation inside europe, a complex and planned operation that is completely against interests. west however, the sanctions that the usa and

europe introduced against the russian oligarchs and the direct sanctions of the british government against the company merit service finally forced cyprus to correct the situation - says alexandra talides, a local deputy. sanctions have proven that the oligarchs cannot use cyprus to support putin's deadly wars. i believe that cyprus understood this, i believe that the workers. of cypriot banks, financial the sector understood that this is the end, what happened happened, we have to improve the work , we have to put an end to the situation where people come to cyprus, because our financial system was quite soft, now it is on the contrary very strict, i believe that cyprus will once again take a place in the financial sector of the european union. however , some analysts say it is too early to say that cyprus has tightened its grip. but there are other unfinished business. the us government has not yet imposed sanctions against abramovich, they say, precisely

because the president of ukraine asked for it volodymyr zelenskyi, in connection with abramovich's participation in peace negotiations immediately after the russian invasion. in the first months of putin's aggression against ukraine, there is some hope that abramovich. to be useful as a kind of mediator in some negotiations, but as we have seen during the two years of war, this was a false and vain hope, and he should be sanctioned because he is one of the main cogs of the putin system, which still evades us sanctions , i think it should be fixed. and are there any lessons from this history for great britain and a whole network of industries that arose for profits from foreign money of dubious origin. we still haven't done enough

to get rid of these ill-gotten rubles and other currency from around the world. we have already taken measures against the banks, but what about those who made all this possible? we need to deal with real estate agents, accountants, lawyers. all these people have created an industry for themselves around these wealthy individuals who stole money from the russian people, who robbed money from peoples all over the world. imagine that you can it would be great if everyone... this money was invested in the future of these countries. we tried to get comments from abramovich, roldugin and plekhov, but did not receive any response. the true relationship between this oligarch and the president is becoming clearer and raises uncomfortable questions about who facilitated it, who helped to hide it for so long, and who profited from it. and after the release of these materials, the president of cyprus promised to conduct. investigation, he said yesterday , his country's reputation. this concludes

our issue, until monday. greetings, friends, the live broadcast of the tv channel continues, this is a program. verdict, we work in a two-hour format, the second hour of friday starts, usually it is friday , in which the program is taken from... participating journalists, my colleagues, today we are talking about ukraine, about the world, about the war, about victory, about everything that interests you, dear friends, today in the program, the affairs of farion and arestovich, who benefits from sowing discord in society, bitter truth is better than sweet

lies, what should be the dialogue between the government and society, binsky and kolomoisky for gratami, zelenskyi's anti-corruption campaign or an imitation. i would like to introduce today 's guests. this is olga len, my colleague on the tv channel, the author and host of the chronicles of information war program. congratulations, olga. good evening. and oleksiy mustafin, journalist, tv producer, is in touch with us on skype. mr. oleksiy, i congratulate you. good evening. and natalya ishchenko, editor of the balkanskyi portal. mrs. natalie, i congratulate you and i am glad to see you on our air. good evening, for our guests and for those who are watching us now on the air directly, i will say that we are conducting a poll during these two hours , we are asking you about the following: do you support the banning of the roc branch in ukraine, two options, yes, no, those

who are currently watching us on the tv channel can vote by phone, yes 0800 200 11-381, no, 0.800, 211-382, since we are already continuing this vote for the second hour , let's look at the interim, the results of this vote, what are people saying, well, at this moment, almost 2000 people have voted, of them 1649, they say yes, it is necessary to ban the activities of the branch of the russian orthodox church in ukraine. it's 85% and 15% against it, there are 280 people, we continue this vote both live and on our youtube platform, and let's start our conversation, dear friends, with zelensky's statement that russia is preparing maidan 3,

and that the kremlin is considering the possibility of organizing coup in ukraine, in what. yesterday, zelensky spoke about the fact that there are forces that shake the situation inside the country, the special services reported about it, today he said that our intelligence has information that also came from our partners, the maidan for them is a coup, so the operation is clear. so, olga, let's start with you, what does this statement of zelenskyi mean, and how does it correspond with the wishes of russia, or with the propaganda that you closely follow, both on and off the air. well, if we talk about russian propaganda, it really is, it’s such a favorite topic of theirs, talking about a possible maidan against zelensky, that ’s all, in the last two weeks these conversations have become more, but there is such a nuance here, well, it’s not professional

to just pick and pull it's in the ukrainian space, that's what they want to say, that's what they want to do maidan, in my broadcasts, for example, i did not even talk about... this, in general, but i did not voice their narratives, because i do not think that it is useful, if there is such a danger, then it is necessary to fight it, well, to act by completely different means, to look for those who may be involved in some organization , to block some certain bots, well, that is, this is work in a completely different plane, and therefore just take it, take it out and start saying it, look, they are preparing maidan 3 , well, i see no benefit in this, i see no benefit in this, i see in this either unprofessionalism, or another option is when these conversations begin to speculate on them and speculate on the fact that this is what russian propaganda wants , when they do not know how to work with their own public opinion, which has recently become

quite critical, to the office of the president, but with again, they, even if you want to counter this criticism and do something, well, by talking about the fact that the russians want maidan 3, well, it does not improve in any way, that is, i just see total unprofessionalism here, it should not have been talked about on my humble opinion, thank you oleksiy, why did president zelenskyi start talking about it, in order to then say to any critic or opponent or person who said that... he is doing something wrong, or zelenskyi should be held accountable for some actions to claim that he works for the kremlin, and in the conditions of war, this is work not only against the president, but also against ukraine. well, it cannot be ruled out, in principle , every government in our country tells us that behind its opponents are some foreign forces,

we remember the conversations about the shatun plan under the previous presidency, that is, there is a certain such a syndrome, and the desire to present one's opponents not just as opponents... there as opposition, dissenters, but also foreign puppets, so to speak, taking into account the war, it is obvious that this is about russia, but on the other hand, well, you have to, actually, all these appeals, this is communication not with the russians, not with the oppositionists, communication with the audience, with the public, i think that this is rather an emphasis. that the government is in place , the government is there, once again the tradition is stronger than ever, and that we know that they want us, so

to speak, to act against us, and here we are we are demonstrating, this is a demonstration, so to speak, of a strong position, well, at least it seems to me, i would like the president and those who ... i am preparing him for such broadcasts, natalia, please tell me, this is the strength or weakness of the president, that what he says about it, and olga said that it is not professional enough to bring it to the public, that it is necessary to somehow act and counter-act against any attempts, including by the russians, to create another speech about the maidan there, well, because all the maidans in ukraine, they were not organized according to instructions. because people went to the maidan of independence and on the streets of kyiv, protested against those who tried to go against ukrainian society, in this case

, according to president zelenskyi and ukrainian intelligence data, the russians are trying to organize a maidan, or simply put, to organize an anti-maidan, what would be the correct answer, to your opinion, as a person who clearly understands how to work with information from, i would say so, with technologies, information technologies, well, yes, if you look at this statement of zelenskyi from the point of view of professionalism in working with public opinion, as well as from the point of view, from the point of view of information warfare and counteraction by hybrid influence, i really agree with oleya that it is necessary to work in the non-public plane first of all, this is what i agree with, but i will add a little, so to speak, another dimension

discussions, i believe that this very statement of zelenskyi regarding the maidan, in public, it is also part of the technology, that is, zelenskyi decided to show in this way that he knows about the enemy's attempts to do something, and that it does not go unnoticed, and the authorities are working with it, will counteract, for some reason it was important him to speak about it publicly, and besides, i think that it was a signal to those political forces from the middle of the country, primarily to the opposition, that all protest movements against the government will now be classified as a coup d'état and cooperation with as russians, i don't know how far this idea will go, but it was precisely such a signal that could be

read in zelensky's statement. olga , what could be the reasons now, or at all the reasons, could there be such reasons for people to go out on the street, to protest during wartime, during war, realizing that, in principle, this plays into the hands of the kremlin itself, are there such reasons, in your opinion, and can they be implemented, is there a field for this? well, as far as i'm concerned, there are no such objective reasons, in the sense that, well, i think that in principle, the majority of society, especially active society, exactly the kind of society that took these measures. before, they basically understand these risks, that's why it 's absolutely, well, no, it shouldn't be aimed at them, so some

small actions can be organized, there are up to 100 people, there 100-200, so that’s what can be, well, again, some speculative, i won’t say now in which plane, because well, this, let’s not hint, but it can be, but again, this there is no maidan, these are not serious actions, but there may be such around, for example, churches of the russian, well , russian... patriarchy, such may be organized from this side, there are still several such directions, it can all be, but it is not will be big, that's all, well, now, after all, the political base is very much undermined by them movements, i.e. there are still such, well, some such provocateurs with whom the sbu should work. when it comes to making such a statement, i believe that, of course, this statement would be strong, only if, uh,

the special services found some real things that they can show and say, look, here is the organizer, there are some attempts, we arrested them, then that’s it, everything else, i think, is an attempt in the right direction, first of all, to prevent some critical statements of civil society, that is, statements, not public actions, this an attempt to present any of these things that are discussed on social networks, some such critical posts and all as preparation for some mass event, i do not see anything else, but whether it can be, or could be, the reason for such dissatisfaction, unsuccessful communication of the authorities with society, because we see that there is only one telethon, they communicate only in one direction, and in principle they do not pay attention to me, just in general, in a situation where already...

we have to experience the second winter enough in difficult conditions, when it is necessary to strengthen, probably some kind of mobilization measures, and well, to do something in general with this , you know, the general moaning around the okhylants, all this suggests that the communication of the authorities, well, must undergo changes, it must undergo changes, there must be some other ways, and somehow - it's different to talk to society, but i see that the conclusions are probably a little wrong , the conclusions are drawn that let's talk, we'll tell that all the critics, who are saying something wrong, all this is preparation for some mass measures against the president personally, well, i think that is enough, well, stupid such an action, thank you oleksiy, how do you assess the current

level of communication, is it even this level and is this me, first of all, i would like to say that for some reason we are leaving behind the actions of the russians themselves, are they really they are counting on something like that, i think they are counting, well, they are acting according to the same pattern, they are hoping to cause some kind of contradiction within ukraine, we know that at the beginning of the war, they were counting on what zelenskyi and his entourage would show. and this, in turn, will cause discontent among ukrainians, and so on they tried to play countermeasures. in general, as we see the russians, the actions of the russians throughout this whole war, if on the front line they learn something like this, then in the information war, they act according to the same pattern, well, it didn’t work out today, we will try

to do the same thing tomorrow, so from this point of view, i admit that the russians really hope for some kind of maidan or pseudo-maidan sooner, but again, this does not mean that they have found some new, new move, but that they are simply using old ones methods that concern communication, banking, in general, it is not at a very high level, if you talk about communication with, with ukrainians, you can say it differently, about communication with allies, but with ukrainians it was at a fairly high level, at least even unexpectedly for many in the first months of the direct invasion, but then, they also began to act like this, well, it worked once, it will work, it will work, and so on, uh,