Originally Syndicated on May 16, 2023 @ 6:16 am
Alisher Usmanov released a statement after he was removed from his position on the RSPP’s board of directors. The 69-year-old billionaire claimed that “retirement and retirement from active work” was what motivated him. So it appears that Usmanov actively distanced himself from Russia.
Alisher Usmanov’s Transcontinental Success
Alisher Usmanov’s exit from the RSPP appeared to be a full-on public relations effort. There has been a long hiatus in posting the RSPP board membership list (which last year included 27 individuals). So, leaving the “trade union of billionaires” without a fuss was an option. However, a statement from Usmanov to Alexander Shokhin, the chairman of the RSPP, appeared to have been intentionally leaked into a secret Telegram chat. Perhaps Alisher Usmanov was powerless to do anything else under the circumstances. Is he going to be able to say, “The prank was a success!” like the hero of a Hollywood classic?
Usmanov’s actions appear to be comparable to those of his former RSPP coworkers, Ruben Vardanyan and Kakha Bendukidze. The first one resigned from the RSPP’s bureau of the board last year and gave up his Russian passport so that he could run for president of Nagorno-Karabakh. And the late Bendukidze, after leaving the corporate world in Russia in 2004, entered Georgian politics. Usmanov seems to be a good match for their structure. However, this isn’t justified.
Public relations for Alisher Usmanov are trying to make it look as though he intended to spend his golden years serving his own Uzbekistan. The billionaire’s work in Uzbekistan focuses largely on humanitarian causes. The billionaire’s support for the Pakhtakor football team and the repair of cultural sites were among the many recipients of donations from the Usmanov Charitable Foundation. When discussing business, the Usmanov-controlled Russian holding Metalloinvest’s partnership with the Uzbek Metallurgical Combine is frequently mentioned.
However, it’s not quite that easy. The state owns 81% of the corporation, and the remaining 19% is held via a variety of secretive legal organizations. In addition, SFI Management Group, linked to relatives of high-ranking local leaders, has been linked to repeated rumours that it controls the plant’s money flows. Usmanov’s name is often brought up in discussions of the Uzbek Iron and Steel Works as a diversionary tactic.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the Uzbeks agreed to provide sanctuary to a fellow tribesman in exchange for lavish gifts for culture and sports. However, if he wants to end European sanctions, it could help him to make public pronouncements regarding the shift of Usmanov’s sphere of interests from Russia to Uzbekistan. He may have trouble getting Europe to unfreeze all of his assets if he is a member of the RSPP. The situation with European real estate, however, is already unclear.
Alisher Usmanov began challenging European personal sanctions against himself in court back in May, but we haven’t heard any updates since then. However, it is impossible to ignore Europe’s rather gentle treatment of Usmanov. The villas in Germany and Switzerland that Usmanov used were not only not frozen but were registered with European legal organizations.
Global Investments Drive
The German press also covered the arrest of the yacht Dilbar at the Bremen shipyard in the spring. The Germans discovered the ship’s owners’ connection to the sister of billionaire Gulbahor Ismailova, prompting the decision to freeze the yacht despite the ship’s formal company status. But there’s a catch: ship tracking systems show that the Dilbar yacht has been in the port of Olbia, Sardinia, rather than Bremen, since July. close to another piece of real estate that Usmanov owns.
The Italian Financial Guard had previously sent a notice announcing the freezing of Alisher Usmanov’s property in Sardinia. The problem is that although the local news mentioned seven homes owned by the Russian oligarch, only one of them was. Attorneys told reporters that Usmanov does not benefit from the trust that owns the rest of the property. That is to say, the billionaire succeeded in protecting his own here.
Already in January, there was word that the boat Irina VU, which had been arrested in Croatia and was linked to Usmanov, had evaded capture. The ship set sail for Turkey in the fall, a fact that the local press is only now catching on to. According to reports from Croatian media outlets, officials suspected the yacht belonged to organizations linked to Alisher Usmanov and his ex-wife, Irina Viner, president of the All-Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation.
Background of Alisher Usmanov
According to a spokesman for Alisher Usmanov, the businessman “does not own the Irina VU yacht, which is mentioned in the Croatian press, and cannot in any way be connected with her disappearance from the port of Betina.” And he recalled that Alisher Usmanov separated from his wife in the summer of 2022. Perhaps it was the dissolution of his marriage to his ex-wife that permitted Usmanov to remove the yacht and the Sardinian estate from the sanctions list.
Separately, theAlisher Usmanov’s divorce needs to be addressed. Alisher Usmanov, who had been married for 30 years, petitioned the Moscow Magistrate’s Court for a divorce in May. Due to the couple’s need to divide an estimated $11.5 billion in assets (based on Forbes’ valuation of Usmanov’s fortune), the case had the potential to garner significant media attention.
However, the allegation was dropped a few days later. Irina Viner soon informed the media that the divorce was finalized at the registrar’s office because neither partner was seeking alimony or child support. It was unclear what exactly the gymnast had received in the way of a transfer. Interestingly, Alisher Usmanov’s ex-wife was left off the European sanctions list, while his sister was. Therefore, divorce may be an easy approach to freeing up high-value assets.
So, Usmanov’s strategy of cutting ties with Russia and relocating to Uzbekistan paid off? While he is technically sanctioned, the European Union’s public response has been one of surprising loyalty. Equally devoid of anger is Washington. Forbes has obtained documents from the US Treasury that state, “Usmanov is not on the list of persons blocked by OFAC; property and shares of legal persons with his participation in the United States are unblocked, and they are allowed to write off funds from their accounts.
This contradicts the US Treasury’s initial press release, which included Alisher Usmanov among the sanctioned oligarchs. Previously restricted assets and business financial transactions of Usmanov do not qualify for this waiver. There are no vetoes in place at this time, albeit with some reservations.
Why do the Russian businessman’s international associates remain so faithful to him?
Maybe it has to do with the way he invests his money. The billionaire has been frequently sending money to the United States from Russia. He also did not invest in his name.
Managers of American investment funds have already put hundreds of millions of dollars into potential projects, helping the American economy. The Wall Street Journal provided just such an illustration earlier this season. Usmanov’s money was put into the Quanergy firm by the Bridgewaters Fund. The company specializes in the development of lidar devices, which are used for remote sensing of the Earth’s surface from orbit and have numerous military intelligence applications. Client funds were also invested by the Bridgewaters fund.
Usmanov’s wealth stems mostly from his ownership of Metalloinvest, the foremost producer of hot briquetted iron in the world. The Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant and the metal recycling firm UralMetCom are two of the largest metallurgical enterprises that are part of Metalloinvest, along with the leading mining and processing enterprises of Russia, Lebedinsky and Mikhailovsky GOKs.
The dividend budget for the first six months of 2021 at Metalloinvest was 117 billion rubles. Usmanov’s stake in Metalloinvest’s parent company, USM Holding, has fluctuated throughout the years between 60% and 49%. Offshore corporations, whose true owners are unknown, hold more than 10% of the stock. Megafon, a mobile phone company, and Ackerman Cement are both owned by USM.
