One of the most important Russian oligarchs, Oleg Deripaska, revives the question of Russia’s turn towards Asia, more burning than ever with the generalized rupture of relations with the West.
In the current context of breaking ties with Europe, the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska proposes to bet on Asia and transfer the capital of Russia to Siberia, reports the Russian online daily Gazeta.ru.
Oleg Deripsaka, 54, founder of aluminum giant Roussal and owner of Russian industrial group Bazovy Element (Basic Element) whose companies in metallurgy, energy, mining, etc. employ 150,000 people worldwide, is one of the richest men in Russia. Placed under American sanctions since 2018, he called for the organization of peace negotiations as quickly as possible shortly following the outbreak of Russian intervention in Ukraine.
On March 4, the billionaire told the Economic Forum in Krasnoyarsk (capital of the region of the same name, the second largest in Russia, stretching from the south to the Arctic in the geographical center of the country):
Russia’s economic interests for the future lie in Asia. If we add up all the numbers, that’s a lot more than Europe, and that’s another dynamic. We persist in focusing on the West. They don’t want us, we have to turn the page. It may seem utopian, but why a capital in Moscow when all our interests are in Asia? We would look at things differently – the distance for the missiles and all the rest – if we moved the capital to Novosibirsk or Krasnoyarsk.”
Asked by Gazeta.ruSiberian elected officials in the Federal Duma conceded that “Western countries had
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Laurence Habay
