Russia | Sanctions do not torment the business of Putin's creditor in the North

Mariehamn In August 2007, a sleek motorboat, the dark blue painted 29-meter Elden, arrived at the port. The ship's skipper came on a fishing trip in his private plane, bought equipment for a few tons, recruited a fishing guide and occasionally ordered strawberries as air cargo from Turku.

Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska after his first trip, visited Åland several times to catch pike and perch, which he was mostly interested in. Sometimes Elden was, to the astonishment of the locals, directed to bad fishing waters such as near Eckerö. There are hardly any fish there, even more communication cables.

In mainland Finland, Deripaska's travels did not receive much attention. There are those, rich Russians. And the Elden isn't even his biggest ship. The water line of Queen K, which thrives in southern waters, is more than twice as long.

“We were quite naive in these matters,” he says Knut Rognerud. “Same as we were in Norway. Deripaska's ship cruised over the gas pipelines going to Britain there.”

Rognerud is a Norwegian-Swedish investigative financial reporter for Swedish Television who has published an in-depth book on Deripaska. In Finnish, the work is called in short An oligarch. The events of Åland have been recorded by Rognerud in the preface in Finnish.

Åland-at the time of his travels, Deripaska was the richest man in Russia. Asset values ​​have since melted, but the oligarch still apparently holds the most important asset: he is considered the president Vladimir Putin as the most beloved billionaire. Deripaska is on both the US and EU embargo lists, but he is said to still travel in the West. Putin allegedly granted his friend a diplomatic passport.

Over the course of a year and a half, Rognerud has gone through quite a number of documents, which have been accumulated, for example, from Deripaska's trials in Spain, Germany and Britain. The title of the original Swedish work Sundsvalloligarken tells what Swedes are interested in this businessman. The Sundsvall aluminum smelter is owned by Deripaska.

“I was surprised by how much influence he has both in Russia and in the West,” says Rognerud. “He has met presidents, prime ministers and CEOs, and they have literally been queuing up to hear his speeches. And this has been going on for a long time.”

The name of the Finnish work could be “Harjavaltaoligarkki”, because Deripaskan's En+ Group owns more than 26 percent of Nornickel, the parent company of the Harjavalta nickel plant. The largest owner is by Vladimir Potanin Interros.

North is not alone with its Deripaska holdings in Europe. So there was quite a panic on the old continent when the United States was about to add En+ Group to its sanctions list in 2018. Washington withdrew its intention when Deripaska gave up his management positions and reduced his stake in the company. Rognerud considers these tricks mostly an eye candy.

The core of En+ Group is the aluminum company Rusal, which previously belonged to Deripaska's Basic Elements group. Perhaps the best gift of the Oligarchy book is a detailed explanation of how Deripaska's aluminum empire was born in the 1990s and what connections with the mafia, the intelligence service and the Russian government were necessary. At the same time, it becomes clear that these fortunes were not created without blood.

Those since then, Deripaska has been involved in many things, both in Davos bacchanals and in wrestling Hillary Clinton attempt to become president instead of Donald Trump. Deripaska has had time to conspire with both the Russian FSB and the American FBI. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, he condemned the war, but the difficulties in Russia that resulted from that statement remained minor.

Deripaska was married until 2018 Polina Jumasheva with who is ex-president Boris Yeltsin granddaughter. There has been no news about the new Mrs. Deripaska, but there has been news about female friends.

Perhaps the strangest project on Deripaska's side has been his current girlfriend Ekaterina Voronina alias Lobanova a trip to the United States in 2020 to give birth to the couple's first child together. Deripaska and Voronina tried the same with the next child two years later, but the expectant mother was turned away after the private plane landed at Los Angeles airport.

It used to be quite common for Russians to travel to the United States to give birth, as the child automatically received American citizenship at that time. After the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this has become more difficult than before. But what on earth brought Deripaska to this adventure? With his money, you could buy several maternity hospitals anywhere.

“I don't understand,” Rognerud admits. “But Deripaska is terribly interested in everything American. And if Russia descends into chaos and civil war, then an American passport is the best thing you can give your child.”