FBK supported the inclusion of Fridman in the sanctions lists

The associates of Alexei Navalny from the International Anti-Corruption Foundation have included the co-owners of Alfa Bank, Mikhail Fridman, Alexei Kuzmychev, and Herman Khan, in the list of persons against whom they propose imposing sanctions.

Ivan Zhdanov, one of the managers of FBK, reported this. According to him, “it was done that was supposed to happen regardless of any events.”

The last names of Fridman, Kuzmychev, and Khan were not previously among about 6,000 names of people whom Navalny’s associates call corruptors and warmongers. There was another shareholder of “Alfa Bank”, Piotr Aven. At the same time, the former head of FBK, Leonid Volkov, sent two letters to the EU leadership (one of them in the name of the organization) with an appeal to lift sanctions from all four.

After the letters were made public, Volkov recognized their writing as a mistake and resigned. His place was taken by Maria Pevchykh.

Zhdanov characterizes the inclusion of Friedman and his partners in the list as follows: “In reality, at some point it mistakenly seemed that with this decision it was possible to wait a little and Fridman and others would stand on the side of good, that they would be able to become a bright example of people who passed on the side of good, condemning the war and declaring their position, no anti-war actions. But, unfortunately, in the second year of the war, they did not choose clear words.”

At the same time, both Volkov and a number of other prominent opposition and independent Russian figures, including Ilya Yashin and Dmitry Muratov, previously signed letters in support of Friedman, justifying them with the fact that he does not support the war and helps Ukraine.

After the Russian invasion, Friedman was included in the sanctions lists of Great Britain and the EU. He did not speak out in support of the war, but he did not directly condemn the actions of the Russian authorities.

“List of 6000” is a document that representatives of the FBK suggest Western countries take as a basis for making decisions on the introduction of sanctions. The inclusion or non-inclusion in the list of a number of persons caused disputes regarding the validity and criteria of the decisions made.