The widespread nationalization launched by the Kremlin following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine has led to a redistribution of confiscated wealth to friends from Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. Former members of the Ozero cooperative received assets totaling $3 billion according to Novaya Gazeta Evropa, quoted by Moscow Times.
The “Ozero” Cooperative is an association of dacha – Russian vacation homes – that Vladimir Putin and his friends established in 1996, on the shore of Lake Ozero, in the Leningrad region. Apart from Putin, the group included Vladimir Smirnov, Vladimir Iakunin, Andrei Fursenko, Serghei Fursenko, Iuri Kovalciuc, Viktor Meacin, and Nikolai Shamalov. Over time, Ozero became much more than an association for the joint use of a resort for leisure, given that its members had exceptional careers, and the buildings were rarely used by their owners, who spent most of their time in Moscow. By 2012, the members of the Ozero cooperative had reached top positions in the Russian government and business environment and had great financial success. After Vladimir Putin became president, almost all members had exceptional careers. And especially exceptional fortunes.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Russia has filed 145 lawsuits requesting the confiscation of private businesses in favor of the state, totaling 4.5 trillion rubles. Of these, assets worth 2.5 trillion rubles remain on the balance sheet of the Federal Property Management Agency. The state currently intends to sell businesses worth 0.5 trillion rubles. However, the remaining assets will not remain state-owned for long. The same state corporations and companies belonging to Putin’s close friends claim them.
The biggest private beneficiary of military nationalization was the Roskhim holding, associated with billionaire Arkadi Rotenberg. He acquired the chemical enterprises confiscated by the state Volschi Orgsintez, Metafrax Chemicals, and Dalnegorsk Mining and Processing Plant, and took control over Salavatneftemash. The total value of the companies acquired by Rotenberg was 168 billion rubles.
The billionaire also claims Domodedovo airport and the largest producer of polyvinyl chloride in Russia, Sayanskkhimplast.
Brothers Yuri and Mikhail Kovalciuk also benefited from nationalization. Together with VTB, they acquired the agricultural holding Pokrovschi, valued at 67 billion rubles, and through Sogaz, they acquired a stake in two gas fields in Siberia, owned by the German company Wintershall Dea.
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