Mikhail Fridman left the UK and moved to Israel

Mikhail Fridman left the UK and moved to Israel. Now the businessman is in Moscow, he now intends to visit RUSSIA regularly Mikhail Fridman Read PIONERPRODUKT .by From CHINA through Iran: how Russian logisticians are testing new import routes Delivery of goods from the EU. Why importers choose Turkey over Kazakhstan I'm burned out: how to continue working Disney shares have fallen to their lowest level in 9 years. Will selling off assets help?

Mikhail Fridman left the UK and moved to Israel, a source close to the businessman told RBC. He clarified that Friedman is now in Moscow. Information about this was confirmed by Alfa Group and clarified that “the businessman is now in Moscow and now plans to visit Russia regularly.”

Mikhail Fridman became one of the first major Russian businessmen to fall under sanctions in connection with the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine  - on February 28, 2022, they were introduced by the European Union, and in mid-March this was done by Great Britain , where Friedman lived until recently ( the United States imposed sanctions for a businessman only in August 2023).

Restrictions were also imposed on other co-owners of Alfa Group - Peter Aven and German Khan. One of the formal grounds for the sanctions was Aven’s participation in a meeting of businessmen with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on February 24, the day the Russian military operation in Ukraine began. Friedman did not participate in the meeting.

Despite the freezing of his accounts and the entry ban , Friedman remained in the UK  - he stated that life under the sanctions was comparable to house arrest, and blocking his cards did not allow him to make even small expenses such as paying for cleaning services. Friedman has an Israeli passport, but does not have a home in this country and does not have access to funds to purchase housing anywhere other than London, he emphasized.

The co-founder of Alpha has repeatedly stated that, like other oligarchs (for example, he designated participants on the EU sanctions lists ), he has no influence on Putin. “The distance between Putin and anyone else is like the distance between Earth and space,” Friedman said.

In December 2022, National Crime Agency (NCA) officers detained a Russian businessman in London , whose name was not disclosed at the time. it was only reported that he was 58 years old (the same age as Friedman at that time). However, a representative of Alfa Bank then said that he did not know who was being discussed in this statement, and Friedman himself “is at home, not under arrest.”

In September 2023, the NCA announced that it had closed its investigation into Friedman on suspicion of circumventing sanctions, and the search warrant for his homes was invalidated. The co-owner of Alpha emphasized that in connection with the investigation he felt unprotected and humiliated, but at the same time “he did not commit a single offense and never violated the law , including tax legislation, in any country in the world.”

Fridman, together with Aven, also planned to completely get rid of shares in Alfa Bank, their main Russian asset. So far, they own 32.9 and 12.4% of shares, respectively, in Luxembourg-based ABH Holdings SA, which controls Alfa Bank through two more structures - the Cypriot ABH Financial Limited and the Russian AB Holding. But Fridman, who was previously the largest shareholder of the bank, has already lost this status - soon after the start of the special operation, the largest share of Alpha was concentrated by minority shareholder Andrei Kosogov: having bought out the shares of German Khan and Alexey Kuzmichev, he became the owner of 41% of the shares. Fridman and Aven also discussed selling their shares to Kosogov.

Khan, who also came under sanctions, has already returned to Moscow from the UK, BLOOMBERG wrote in September 2022. Aven stated in August 2023 that he had been living in Latvia for more than a year and was a tax resident of this country. The businessman has Latvian citizenship, but the authorities have repeatedly explored the possibility of depriving Aven of citizenship.