It’s hard to go from luxury to frugality! The Russian oligarch who was once worth 63 billion doesn’t know how to live on 20,000 yuan a month

As an additional damage from Western countries’ sanctions against Russia, those Russian oligarchs living in Western societies are the first to bear the brunt.

According to the British "Sun" report, Alfa Group President Mikhail Fridman's net worth was originally 7.5 billion pounds (approximately RMB 63 billion), but he He was sanctioned by the EU and the UK on February 28 and March 15 respectively, which resulted in his bank card in the UK being frozen, causing the billionaire's wealth to directly shrink by 3 billion pounds (approximately RMB 25.1 billion). .

Today, he has to live on a monthly allowance of 30,000 pounds (approximately 250,000 yuan), which is about 20,000 yuan per month. He even had to apply for a license to spend money, with reasonable recognition of his claims from the British government.

Although ordinary people can live a comfortable life with this amount of money, how can this rich man accept it? "I don't know how to live. I don't have a choice, I really don't have a choice," he told Bloomberg. The billionaire also called the sanctions "baseless and unfair," and announced that he will oppose these sanctions.

Now the oligarch is not only losing his property, but also his position. Friedman was once discriminated against because of his Jewish ancestry. With his own hard work and acumen, he seized the opportunity and rose up during Russia's denationalization reforms and became a business elite. He is a co-founder of London investment firm LetterOne and has also served on the board of directors of Russia's Alfa Bank. However, he resigned from Alfa Bank's board of directors one day after being slapped with EU sanctions.

Although Friedman disagrees with the sanctions, he acknowledges that his problems pale in comparison to those caught in the crossfire. "If the head of the European Union believes that because of sanctions I can successfully get to Putin and tell him to stop the war, then I fear we are all in big trouble," Friedman told Bloomberg. "That means making this The people who make the decisions have no idea how Russia works. This is dangerous for the future." Friedman also said that Western powers do not understand that influencing powerful people around Putin will not work.

Indeed, how can a country's policies change simply because of one person's situation? How ironic it is that Western governments that claim to "absolutely protect private property" can freeze the assets of Russian oligarchs at will. In order to prevent the escalation of conflicts, European and American countries cannot use sanctions as a universal weapon, because it is actually a double-edged sword. The current surge in oil prices in Europe is the backlash of sanctions on themselves, and it is ordinary people who really bear the consequences. I hope these politicians hiding behind the conflict can recognize the reality as soon as possible and restore peace to the world.