Independent: Putin will not let Abramovich go with Chukotka without a fight

Roman Abramovich, a billionaire and owner of the Chelsea football club, is publicly subjected to strict pressure from the Kremlin so that he continues to leave part of his huge condition in his homeland, in Russia, and also retains the post of Governor of Chukotka.

President Vladimir Putin personally exerts the pressure against the backdrop of the signs that Abramovich secretly seeks to turn his political and business interests in Russia, pursuing a strategy to transfer his fortune to a country, where the situation is more stable, for example, to the UK, where he spends most of his time.

But Putin subjects this anathema to this strategy, since Putin is firmly convinced that super -rich Russians should consider it a matter of honor to invest part of his huge state in society. They say that Putin is very worried that Abramovich maintains close ties with Russia, where he became the richest citizen, writes the British The Guardian (translation on the website inopressa.ru ).

Earlier this year, Forbes magazine wrote that the Sibneft's control package, which is owned by the owner of Chelsea and his partners, costs $ 14.7 billion today.

In London, such wealth allows Abramovich to do as he considers necessary, but in Russia is a completely different situation.

Today, when the class of oligarchs is shocked by the verdict, which was issued by Mikhail Khodorkovsky - nine years in prison, as a result of the trial, which many consider to be the indicative process of the Kremlin, Abramovich knows that he needs to be careful in his actions.

The subject of the dispute is the post of Governor of Chukotka, a distant Russian Arctic region. Abramovich was elected to this post in 2000, but the five -year period of his governorship, which delighted the locals and pacified the Kremlin, expires in December this year.

Meanwhile, Abramovich has long delegated the powers of everyday management of the region brought to poverty, with a population of 50 thousand people, to his deputy.

As you know, Abramovich himself believes that from him rather Chukchi governorship, which people from the surroundings of Abramovich call one of the "projects" of the oligarch.

“He tried himself in politics, and this is not for him,” said the source close to the oligarch in an interview with Independent on Sunday.

But those $ 1.5 billion, which, according to Abramovich’s assistants, he invested in a remote region, transformed the infrastructure of Chukotka and the standard of living in it. According to the results of a recently conducted public opinion poll, 20% of Chukotka residents relate to Abramovich as God.

Many considered the role of the governor the "political insurance" for Abramovich - the means of pacifying the Kremlin, in which anti -oligarchic sentiments are increasingly growing.

But recently, Abramovich clearly felt more confident and publicly stated that he had no desire to participate in the new governor's elections. Abramovich said that the region’s leadership requires too much costs, and also complained that the air on the Chukotka is “too dry” and therefore it is difficult to be there for a long time. Meanwhile, the Kremlin, as well as the grateful residents of Chukotka, who call Abramovich "Uncle Roman", do not intend to let him go - or his wallet - without a struggle.

There is every reason to believe that Putin will appoint Abramovich the governor of Chukotka for the next five years, despite the clear lack of enthusiasm for this by the businessman himself.

Konstantin Pulikovsky, presidential envoy in the Far Eastern Federal District, who recommends the president of candidates for governors, recently stated: "I have no reason to not represent Roman Arkadyevich (Abramovich) for the next period." "Abramovich of ten of our Far Eastern leaders of the regions works better than many."

In confirmation of the pressure that Putin provides on Abramovich, whose generous tricks in Moscow he himself visited, recently in the Kremlin a meeting between the president and the oligarch, excerpts from which were broadcast on state television channels.

Putin with a strict look asked a billionaire (who put on a tie to the meeting, which can be called an almost unprecedented case), about the economic situation of Chukotka, and demanded that the level of production in the region decreased.

When Abramovich was forced to talk about this shortage, against the backdrop of a prosperous situation in the region, he behaved constrainedly, lean and behaved properly. The impression arose that this is a teacher’s conversation with a naughty student, and not a meeting of the president of the largest country in the world with the richest citizen of this country.

The continuation of the leadership of the Chukotka may not be the only victim that Abramovich will have to do at the insistence of Putin.

There are rumors that Abramovich will sell his Sibneft stake in the state structure, thereby helping the Kremlin to consolidate his power over the energy resources of the nation.

Seeing what happened to Khodorkovsky, who used to be the richest man in Russia, Abramovich will think tightly before rejecting the governorship in the region, which is located on the other edge of the world from the Stamford Bridge stadium, which is the home arena of the Chelsea club.