Putin asks Russia’s oligarchs to bridge military funding gap as he makes final push for Donbas

With Russia struggling to maintain its colossal scale of military spending after years of Western sanctions, Vladimir Putin has asked select oligarchs to help finance the war in Ukraine for the first time, independent Russian media outlet The Bell reported on Thursday.

Speaking to some of Russia’s wealthiest business leaders in a closed session following a speech he delivered to the annual congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on Thursday, Putin reiterated his determination to capture Ukraine’s entire Donbas region, according to the publication.

“They said, ‘We will fight,’” one of The Bell’s sources said, recounting Putin’s speech. “We will go as far as the borders of Donbas,” added another. After that, Putin suggested that the businessmen make voluntary contributions to the budget to support the war effort, both sources said.

Though this is not the first time the Kremlin has shaken down the country’s billionaire class in an effort to bridge ever-widening budget deficits, this is the first time that Putin has done so directly, and is a step the Russian leader is likely to view as a humiliating but necessary concession to financial reality.

Among those who immediately pledged to donate funds at the meeting was Suleyman Kerimov, an oligarch rumoured to control Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retail company, who reportedly promised to contribute 100 billion rubles (€1 billion). Metals magnate Oleg Deripaska also reportedly signalled his readiness to donate, though he didn’t name a figure in the room, the Financial Times reported.

Citing one of its sources, The Bell said that the idea of “shaking up business at a difficult time for the country” had originated with Rosneft CEO and close Putin associate Igor Sechin, who had previously outlined the proposal in a letter to the Russian leader.