Steel magnate Alexei Mordashov was once considered the richest Russian – and apparently bribed German journalist Hubert Seipel.
Moscow. When Russian President Vladimir Putin invited almost 40 businessmen to the Kremlin on the night of his declaration of war on Ukraine in February 2022, there was also one in the group who always liked to describe himself as a “good guy”. There, in the second row of chairs, steel baron Alexei Mordashov did what he does well: be “good”. When Putin called for “solidarity with the government” and blamed Russia’s richest men for the war, none of them stood up and contradicted the man who made them great in a system that lacked big business. Compromises with the Kremlin did not work.
Mordashov quickly wondered why he ended up on the Western sanctions list just four days after the start of the war, why Italian police confiscated his yacht and why European banks froze his money. He said he had nothing to do with the Kremlin’s decisions. But the “boy” seemed to have suspected something for a long time and began an action that could be interpreted as a way of circumventing the sanctions, as the so-called confidential revelations from Cyprus by investigative journalists now suggest. Mordashov transferred shares to Marina Mordashova, his third wife. Now it is also being sanctioned. The newspapers reveal something else: the award-winning German journalist Hubert Seipel will have collected 600 thousand euros from Russia for his books, which have always been friends of Russia. Apparently paid for by Mordashov’s corporate network.