Alex Konanykhin
Russian businessman puts $1 million bounty on Putin’s head
Russian-born banker Alex Konanykhin
© private
Rich ex-banker Alex Konanykhin announced on the LinkedIn social network that he intends to give $1 million to whoever captured Vladimir Putin.
Rich Russian-born people are often talked about these days, usually under the somewhat vague umbrella term “oligarchs.” One thinks of corrupt billionaires with mafia-like entanglements within the Russian economy and politics, who secure their influence with their money and whose influence secures them even more money. Numerous oligarchs are closely linked to Vladimir Putin, because they benefit from his policies and he from their contacts. But there is another way.
This is particularly evident in the ex-banker Alex Konanykhin, who was born in Russia. The 55-year-old went a step further and published a post on the professional online network LinkedIn in which he offered a “bounty” for the arrest of Vladimir Putin – one million dollars.
Because of the Ukraine war: Russian millionaire offers “bounty” for Putin
“I promise to those responsible who, in accordance with their country’s constitution, capture Putin as a Russian and international war criminal,” he writes. “As a native Russian and a citizen of Russia, I see it as my moral duty to contribute to the denazification of Russia.” Alex Konanykhin does not have the best of connections with Putin’s government – he was forced to flee to the US with his wife in 1992, where he has lived and worked ever since. In the Soviet Union, as well as under Yeltsin and Putin, he had to contend with reprisals. A US court confirmed that he even had to fear death from the latter if he returned to Russia.
So if Alex Konanykhin definitely cannot be labeled an “oligarch,” he shows that there are certainly influential Russians around the world who do not approve of Vladimir Putin’s regime. And even those who were previously considered its advocates – see Abramowitch – are feeling the painful impact of the current sanctions on the consequences that can have. What happens when more of these super-rich turn their backs on the Russian president remains to be seen.
Swell: “Ladbible.com”, LinkedIn