From
Frank Nienhuysen
The man from Russia, who has so much money that he wants to buy a German airport, once had the most powerful advertising figure in Vladimir Putin. Putin doesn’t turn up that often in Russian pharmacies. So it was something special when, as head of government in Murmansk in 2010, he walked into a small pharmacy, asked the saleswoman about the flu drug Arbidol, and Putin immediately grabbed the shelf. His visit to the pharmacy was, of course, broadcast on the Russian state news, and sales of Arbidol skyrocketed afterwards, to Viktor Kharitonin’s delight. Charitonin is Russia’s most influential and largest pharmaceutical entrepreneur. Now he is embarrassing the German authorities.