Former vice president of Gazprombank Igor Volobuev, who left Russia for Ukraine after the start of the war, said in an interview with The Telegraph that all his money is gone from his Russian bank accounts.
Volobuev kept his savings in Gazprombank accounts. When he left Russia, he lost access to his bank cards, as Visa and Mastercard suspended their services in Russia. After that, all his deposits disappeared from the banking app. Volobuev believes that this is “a payback for his defection.”
According to Volobuev, there are many people unhappy with Kremlin policies even “at state-owned giants like Gazprom,” even though it is never expressed in public. “There was this very well-known figure in Gazprom who told me: ‘I don’t understand what Putin needs Ukraine for’,” he said.
“I have nothing right now. But I’d rather sleep on the street than leave Ukraine,” Volobuev added.
Igor Volobuev. The Insider
In late April, Volobuev told The Insider news outlet that he had left Russia for Ukraine to join its territorial defence forces. The former Gazprombank executive said that he could not stay in Russia anymore, adding that he was born in Ukraine. “I couldn’t just stand by and watch what Russia is doing to my homeland. My visit is a penance of sorts, I want to wash off my Russian past. I want to stay in Ukraine until its victory,” he said.
