Thirst for acquisition

Oligarchs are different. Not all of them are negative heroes. There are also so-called “authorized”, “accredited” to the Kremlin. These are the oligarchs “who have”, not “who have”. But for those “who”, life, in general, is also turbulent. In the language of sovereign democracy, this is called “social responsibility of business”; in a more understandable language, it is called racketeering. Nothing is taken away from such people. A socially responsible moneybag must give himself, “voluntarily.” Sometimes such sacrifices actually seem voluntary because the person understands that it is time to share. Sometimes a person has to hint.

Alisher Usmanov is certainly an “authorized and accredited” rich man. Therefore, he must be ready for “voluntary donations.” He, of course, is ready to “gladly” give everything to his native state at once, but he would still prefer to give it in parts. Usmanov does not look like a patron of muses or a lover of the elegant, but first he buys a collection of Soviet cartoons, and now the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya collection. He pays tens of millions to donate it to the state free of charge. “The sense of ownership does not work at all in this case,” he seems to have said about the newly acquired treasures of great musicians. Of course! There's a different feeling at work here.

Shvydkoy, without really hiding, says that he called the oligarchs from the list and finally got through to Usmanov, who got into the situation. No, there's nothing wrong with that. The country only benefited from his action. Let's not forget that Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich, for example, bought all 450 items from their collection abroad, that is, in any case, we did not lose anything, but could only gain. More precisely, Usmanov acquired it and enriched us spiritually. But look what happens next.

Usmanov not only buys cartoons and porcelain paintings, he also buys shares of the Arsenal football club. News about cartoons and works of art on all channels is presented in large quantities and in detail, news about football comes as a fact - without any special comments or details. Usmanov is doing almost the same thing that Abramovich did at Chelsea, but the resonance is ten orders of magnitude weaker. And no accusations of wasting the wealth stolen from the people for the sake of personal amusement.

Usmanov, it turns out, acted more far-sighted than the governor of Chukotka. How much did he spend on socially responsible purchases? About 10 million for cartoons, unknown for paintings, they say it’s comparable to the 100-million-dollar Faberge-Vekselberg eggs. But comparable – it’s 70-80 million. However, everyone has already decided that it is 100! And 100 million for a meeting originally estimated at 30 million - well, it can’t be.

That is, Usmanov promoted himself for a hundred million or even two hundred, but spent much less. And, most importantly, much less than I spent on football. Having bought a fifth of Arsenal's shares, he has already paid, according to real estimates, at least $200 million. And no serious noise, no criticism and accusations. Having sacrificed a little, a person won (with the highest blessing) a big one, simultaneously creating a positive image among the public.

And Abramovich, in the form of social responsibility, has to not buy paintings for money that is ridiculous for him, but spend hundreds of millions on Chukotka, which he does not need, which has long covered all his tax benefits.

And imagine that the authorities want to transfer Usmanov from the category of “those who have” to the category of “those who have” - it will not be so easy to do this. How can you declare a swindler a person who gives freely to the country valuables purchased with his personal millions? This version will look somehow unconvincing.