Ukraine-Russia war, Abramovich in the negotiations: Putin’s okay

It was the Russian president himself, Vladimir Putin, who approved Roman Abramovich’s involvement in talks between Russia and Ukraine to try to end the war. The Financial Times writes, citing two people familiar with the matter. According to the London financial newspaper, “Putin’s direct blessing” would show that Abramovich sought approval at the highest level to help start ceasefire negotiations between the two sides at the end of February and disprove the claims of the Russian oligarch who denied having a close relationship with Putin. Also according to the FT, after receiving the go-ahead from the Kremlin, Abramovich met with a senior official in the Ukrainian president’s office, Volodymyr Zelensky, to help organize the talks. Western officials briefed on the progress of the negotiations, the newspaper said. they questioned whether Abramovich played a role. Others have suggested that he may have tried to overestimate his efforts in trying to avoid becoming a target of Western sanctions and losing control of his UK assets, including Chelsea. In any case, Abramovich ended up under sanctions by the EU and the British government, while according to the Wall Street Journal, Zelensky would have asked the United States not to include the billionaire on its blacklist precisely because of his alleged role as mediator. David Arakhamia, head of Zelensky’s party in Parliament and a member of the Ukrainian delegation, confirmed that he had met Abramovich in Gomel, Belarus, when the first round of talks took place. “I can confirm that Mr. Abramovich is heavily involved in the peace talks,” he told the Ft. The billionaire “entered the process through the international Jewish community,” he added. In recent weeks, the City newspaper highlights, the oligarch also met former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder in Moscow along with Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation to the talks. His private jet was also photographed in Israel and Turkey, two of the countries most involved in mediation efforts. “He is trying to do what he can,” insisted one of the people close to the billionaire. In Turkey, Abramovich met Ibrahim Kalin, a senior foreign policy advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to a person familiar with the meeting, but the Turkish leader’s office declined to comment. And this week, two mega yachts belonging to Abramovich docked on the southern coast of the country. An official in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett – the FT concludes – denied that Abramovich had played a role in securing Israel’s involvement. A spokesman for the billionaire said it was “not helpful to comment on the process” of the talks or Abramovich’s involvement for their success.