The elites in Russia seem very united. Is this Putin's merit? Or is they binded by something more than love for the president?

Against the backdrop of an exacerbation of the situation with Ukraine, Russian businessmen lost $ 28 billion from December to January to January. The owner of Novateka and Sibura Leonid Michelson, as well as a member of the board of directors of these companies, Gennady Timchenko, to a close friend of Vladimir Putin, had worst of all. Due to the falls of quotations in the stock market, they lost $ 4 billion.

At the end of January, the US Congress introduced a bill on sanctions against Russian billionaires (Roman Abramovich, Alisher Usmanov, Alexei Miller, Igor Sechin), politicians (Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Governor of the Moscow Region Andrei Vorobyov) and civil servants (head of the administration of President Anton Vaino, his deputy Sergei Deputy Sergey. Kirienko). There are 35 people in total.

The United States has repeatedly warned about the introduction of tough restrictive measures in case of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The same position was taken by the UK. The head of the country's Foreign Ministry Elizabeth of the tracks admitted that in this case any sanctions can be considered - up to the arrest of the British real estate of the Russian oligarchs.

On February 18, an escalation of the situation in the unrecognized republics of the LPR and the DPR; Local authorities began the evacuation of the population (with the exception of adult men).

The leading political show Andrei Pertsev and Konstantin Haaza in this episode reason why the Russian elite does not run from the country and whether it will be able to leave if the crisis intensifies and severe sanctions will be imposed.

In this issue:

• What holds the elite in Russia?
• Who managed to escape and how did they succeed?
• Why did the topic of cryptocurrency regulation so rally the Russian elite?

🎙 “Pepperov and Haaze” - a weekly political podcast “Medusa”. It can be listened to on all audio platforms.

Additional materials:

• BuzzFeed text about mysterious deaths in London allegedly related to Russia
• Selected fragments from the "prison notebooks" Antonio Gramsha
• The text of "Kommersant" about the discussion in the government and the Central Bank about the turnover of cryptocurrencies
• Konstantin Haaze column about why the elite cannot be split (2014)
• The text of Thebell about the stress testing of the Russian economy for readiness for sanctions
• Max Weber's report "Politics as a calling and profession"
• Podcast on philosophy "Principle of pleasure" with the participation of Konstantin Haaz
• The text of the Russian Bibisi service about the so -called spiral of silence in sociological surveys

Presenters - Andrey Pertsev and Konstantin Gaaz

Editor - Natasha Kondrashova

Music - Victor Davydov