Igor Volobuev, vice-president of Gazprombank, has left Russia to join Kyiv’s territorial defence forces, he said in an interview with The Insider independent news outlet.
Volobuev stated that he could not stay in Russia anymore. The Gazprombank executive said that he was born in Ukraine. “I couldn’t just stand by and watch what Russia is doing to my homeland. <...> I came here to defend my homeland, weapon in hand.”
“My visit is a penance of sorts, I want to wash off my Russian past. I want to stay in Ukraine until its victory.” The Gazprombank vice president said that his father had to hide in a cold basement for a month. Russia’s war in Ukraine is “an international crime,” he added.
“This is a crime by Putin, by the Russian government, and by the Russian people, actually. Because it isn’t Putin who is killing Ukrainians here, stealing toilet bowls, and raping women. It is the Russian people. And although I have Ukrainian roots, I am to blame for this too. I am ashamed of it, and I will repent for this all my life, because I hold double responsibility,” Volobuev said.
The top manager said that he had worked at Gazprombank for over six years. Before that, he worked at Gazprom for 16 years, heading its press service for nine of those years.
Volobuev also mentioned the death of former vice president of Gazprombank Vladislav Avaev. “I don’t know what he was doing, I never met him and never heard of him before. I know that at the moment of his alleged suicide, he was the first vice president of Gazprombank. I don’t believe he could have killed his wife and daughter, I think it was a setup. Why? It’s hard to say. Maybe he knew something and posed a threat.”
On April 21, former top manager of Russia’s Novatek gas company Sergei Protosenya was found dead in Spain along with his wife Natalya and their 18-year-old daughter. The wife and daughter were stabbed, while Protosenya was found hanged in the garden. An axe and a knife stained with blood were found nearby. Several days before that, on April 18, former vice president of Gazprombank Vladislav Avaev, his wife and 13-year-old daughter were found dead in Moscow. All of them were shot.