Head of the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption in Ukraine Oleksandr Novikov stated in an interview with Forbes Ukraine that Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman, co-founder of LetterOne investment company, is currently discussing the possibility of applying for Ukrainian citizenship. Fridman was born in Ukraine’s Lviv.
“Such a scenario is possible for other Russian businessmen of Ukrainian origin, for example, Viktor Vekselberg, who was born in Drohobych,” Novikov said. Fridman plans to register his main assets in Ukraine, which will benefit the country, as the Ukrainian government will receive additional taxes.
“Financing the destruction of Putin’s regime with the money of Russian oligarchs is probably the best thing Ukraine can do in these circumstances. Russians can also benefit from this, as Putin is destroying and killing the Russian economy and Russians themselves,” the Ukrainian government official said.
Fridman has not officially confirmed this information so far.
On 27 February, shortly after the war in Ukraine began, the Financial Times reported that Fridman had sent a letter to the team of LetterOne’s London office, in which he said that he was born in Lviv and that his parents live in Ukraine as Ukrainian citizens. “But I have also spent much of my life as a citizen of Russia, building and growing businesses. I am deeply attached to Ukrainian and Russian peoples and see the current conflict as a tragedy for them both,” Fridman wrote.
“While a solution seems frighteningly far off, I can only join those whose fervent desire is for the bloodshed to end,” he added. The businessman confirmed to Forbes Russia that he did write that letter.