Putin at a closed meeting with big businessmen offered them to voluntarily finance the war with Ukraine
On Thursday, the President of Russia held a closed meeting with big businessmen. According to The Bell's sources, Putin discussed the continuation of the war and its financing with the oligarchs.
Photo: Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
“They said we will fight,” — recounts one of the interlocutors, familiar with the content of the conversation, regarding the essence of Putin's speech. “We will go to the borders of Donbas,” — recounts another.
After this, Putin suggested to businessmen to make voluntary contributions to the budget, both assert.
According to one of the interlocutors, the idea "to shake down business during a difficult time for the country" belongs to the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, who previously outlined it in a letter to Putin. As a mechanism for attracting funds, the letter proposed issuing war bonds.
Some businessmen responded to the request directly at the meeting. Suleiman Kerimov promised to contribute 100 billion rubles (1.5 billion dollars), asserts one of The Bell's interlocutors and another confirms.
The idea was also supported by at least one other big businessman who was present at the meeting, however, he did not name the amount of his contribution.