- Aug 18, 2009
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Ah the Russians, they sure know how to make people die of natural causes
Abramovich's Wikipedia page is quality reading, he's basically just a gangster who's been allowed to pull off some extremely profitable albeit morally questionable business by an extremely corrupt Russian government after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Here are some excerpts:
In 1995, Abramovich and Berezovsky acquired a controlling interest in the giant Soviet oil company Sibneft. Affiliates of Abramovich, with affiliates of Boris Berezovsky, purchased Sibneft for US$100.3 million (the company was worth US$2.7 billion at that time). Sibneft produces around US$3 billion worth of oil annually.[20] Abramovich established several fly-by-night firms and together with his friend Boris Berezovsky used them to acquire the stock of Sibneft. As a result, the tycoon managed to pay for the company 25 times less than the market price.[20] Bought for a total of US$200 million, Sibneft is now worth seventy five times as much.[21]
The Times claimed that he was assisted by Badri Patarkatsishvili.[22] This acquisition was under the controversial loans-for-shares programme initiated by President Boris Yeltsin.[23][24][25] After Sibneft, Abramovich's next target was the aluminium industry. After privatisation the 'aluminium wars' led to murders of smelting plant managers, metals traders and journalists as groups battled for control of the industry. Abramovich famously emerged as the winner of the aluminium wars.[22] The Times stated that in a BBC investigation into Abramovich's wealth, reporter John Sweeney noted that, after the oligarch (Abramovich) emerged at the top of the trade, the murders stopped.[26]
In 2012 Berezovsky took Abramovich to court for several billion pounds over the ownership of Sibneft, claiming that in the early 2000's Abramovich had threatened him and forced him to sell his stake in the company against his will.
In an entirely unrelated turn of events Berezovsky was found dead in his Berkshire house a few months later having apparently hung himself.