(ANSA) — ROME, DECEMBER 04 — One of the most influential voices in support of Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine is that of oligarch Yuri Kovalchuk, 71, who says war can demonstrate Russia’s strength. This was revealed by intelligence sources speaking to The Wall Street Journal. The billionaire and Putin have met frequently since the war began in February, and have also spoken by phone or video, according to a Kovalchuk family friend and former Russian intelligence official.
The US Treasury Department called Kovalchuk Putin’s “personal banker”. According to interviews with former US officials and Kremlin analysts, as well as public documents, the Russian tycoon controls Bank Rossiya, which itself has built a network of offshore companies that have benefited Putin and his cronies, and invests in projects designed for are important to the state and information disclosed by the Panama Papers.
Kovalchuk’s National Media Group also owns or holds major stakes in dozens of Russian television, film production and advertising companies, including state broadcaster Channel One. Four of the channels affiliated with the National Media Group are among the top 10 most watched in the country.
Kovalchuk “has two of the most important jobs for Putin,” said Anders Aslund, an economist and senior fellow at the Free World Forum think tank in Stockholm, who was an adviser to the Russian government from 1991 to 1994: money and the media. It was the National Media Group television channels that broadcast claims by Russian officials that Ukraine was planning to detonate a “dirty bomb” on its territory. (HAND).
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