Slate has an article by
Ben Mathis-Lilley entitled
A Very Matter-of-Fact Interview About the Russian Tradition of Arresting Billionaires and Taking Their Stuff:
Vladimir Yevtushenkov (photo) is a hugely wealthy Russian business figure whose Sistema group controls the oil company Bashneft and the mobile phone company MTS. He was put under house arrest this week on charges of money laundering, though there has been some public pushback to his detention, and he may or may not have been freed with a promise not to leave the country. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has an explanatory interview about the arrest with another wealthy Russian, the exiled Yevgeny Chichvarkin. Chichvarkin's straightforward take on the situation: "The Crimea was up for grabs; they took it. Bashneft is up for grabs; they will take it, too", would be funny if it weren't for the fact that the lawlessly plutocratic leader being described (Vladimir Putin) controls one of the most powerful armies in the world.
Radio Free Europe: What's going to happen to Yevtushenkov now? What are his options?
Chichvarkin: He will give up Bashneft, he will spend two or three years being questioned, and give tons of money to the chekists [the officials close to Russia's state-security organs] to obtain the closure of his criminal case. That's the best-case scenario. In the worst-case scenario, they will also seize his telecom assets and create a Russian united telecommunication corporation or something in that vein.
Rico says we have a few billionaires worth arresting...
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