A Russian billionaire with ties to President Vladimir Putin called for peace and shared a video harshly critical of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine following a U.S. crackdown on oligarchs.
Oleg Deripaska, known for his prior business relationships with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and British ex-spy Christopher Steele, and who is accused of assisting the Russian government’s influence operations worldwide, repeatedly tweeted Monday that “we need peace” and shared a lengthy video from Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, who criticized Putin and his invasion.
“I don’t always agree with [Harari] … But here I do agree with him, and I am sure most Russian people do — we need peace,” Deripaska tweeted. “We need peace as soon as possible, as we have already passed the point of no return — and this is the second point I agree with. The entire world will be different, Russia will be different as well.”
Deripaska’s comments are notable, in part because the Senate Intelligence Committee said in August 2020 that he had aided Kremlin election interference efforts in Ukraine and was involved in an alleged attempted coup attempt in Montenegro in 2016, with the Balkan nation joining NATO the next year.
Last week, the Justice Department launched the KleptoCapture task force, which is aimed at enforcing U.S. sanctions targeting the Kremlin, with President Joe Biden vowing to go after crimes committed by Russian oligarchs.
The video Deripaska linked to was a TED talk interview that Harari gave last week.
“It’s not the Russian people who want this war. It’s really just a single person who, by his decisions, created this tragedy,” Harari said, adding, “The Russian people don’t really want this war. Even the people in the immediate circle around Putin, you know, again, I don’t know them personally, but from what it seems, these people, they like life.”
Harari continued, “They have their yachts, and they have their private airplanes, and they have their house in London, and they have their chateau in France, and they like the good life, and they want to keep enjoying it. So I think that the sanctions can be really effective. So what’s the timetable? Ultimately, that’s in the hands of Putin.”
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Harari said Putin had misjudged Ukraine’s will to fight and the leadership of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“His belief was, at least, that he just needs to invade, Zelensky will flee, the government will collapse, the army will lay down its arms, and the Ukrainian people would welcome the Russian liberators, throwing flowers at them,” Harari said. “And this fantasy has been shattered already. Zelensky hasn’t fled. The Ukrainian army is fighting. And the Ukrainian people is not throwing flowers on the Russian tanks — it’s throwing Molotov cocktails.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan report concluded in 2020 that Manafort posed a “grave counterintelligence threat” as former President Donald Trump’s campaign manager because of his contacts with Russians allegedly connected to Kremlin intelligence, including Deripaska.
Manafort was convicted of crimes arising from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Trump pardoned Manafort in 2020. Mueller “did not establish” any criminal collusion between Trump and Russia, and special counsel John Durham is investigating the origins and conduct of the Trump-Russia investigation.
The Senate report said Deripaska’s relationship with Putin likely dates back to 2000 and that Manafort was introduced to Deripaska around 2004, since which time the oligarch “has acted as a proxy for the Russian state and intelligence services.” The senators said Deripaska “has managed and financed Kremlin-approved and Kremlin-directed active measures campaigns, including information operations and election interference efforts” and “has conducted these activities in an effort to install pro-Kremlin regimes.”
The senators said Deripaska’s “right-hand-man for the implementation of Russian active measures” is Viktor Boyarkin, whom they described as an officer for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, or GRU. The report pointed to Deripaska’s influence operations in Ukraine, including helping former Kremlin-leaning Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who went into exile in Russia in 2014.
Deripaska reportedly said as recently as Feb. 21 that there would not be a war in Ukraine.
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Steele was working for Deripaska before, during, and after his time targeting then-candidate Trump, and the former MI6 agent was hired to put the discredited dossier together by an opposition research firm, Fusion GPS, which was hired by the Clinton campaign.
Deripaska paid Steele to investigate Manafort after accusing the Republican operative of stealing millions from him, and Steele sought help from Fusion in early 2016.
A Washington, D.C., mansion tied to Deripaska was raided by the FBI in October. Deripaska was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2018.
