According to his own statement, Vladimir Putin wants to liberate Ukraine from the Nazis. It has long been clear that this is a fairy tale. Now a secret presentation shows that Russia’s super-rich are all about one thing in this war: profit.
Russia’s super-rich oligarchs have a plan for dividing up Ukraine if Putin takes over large parts of the country. This emerges from a secret presentation by the investment mogul Konstantin Malofeev, which a Russian Telegram channel has now published. British military historian Chris Owen has summarized the content.
Accordingly, shortly after the start of the war, oligarchs assumed that Ukraine would be divided. Accordingly, Russia should conquer the entire regions of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Cherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa. This would have meant that Ukraine would no longer have access to sea routes. And Ukraine would have lost most of its heavy industry, hydroelectric resources and minerals. In this case, Owen writes: “Ukraine would be an economically devastated landlocked country.”
In the presentation, oligarch Malofeev outlines his dream of an empire in Ukraine. The ultra-conservative Putin intimate describes how a “DMZ concern” could absorb large parts of Ukrainian industry. This group already exists. The Donetsk Metallurgical Plant operates mines and factories in the Russian-controlled part of the Donetsk region.
Malofejew tells stories about market opportunities and consolidation. What he means: He wants to grab the Ukrainian silverware. And also lists it quite unabashedly. Under the item “Companies in the Liberated Areas that are Candidates for Integration” are some of Europe’s largest mining and raw material processing companies.
Owen writes that a slide indicates that he wasn’t dealing with loose mind games here. The lawyers had already drawn up agreements. There was a concrete three-stage plan that was to be implemented from 2022 to 2027. This also meant that the conquered companies should increasingly trade with pro-Russian countries in the Middle East, East Asia and Africa. For this purpose, the port of Odessa should also be connected to the DMZ group.
Sales should be increased from 70 trillion rubles (almost one billion euros) to 220 trillion rubles (more than 3 billion euros) by 2024. According to the presentation, this will lead to “the formation of a large company in the interests of the Russian Federation”.
Owen concludes: “Of course, the Ukrainian company owners would not have received any money for the takeovers. Malofeyev was planning nothing other than the greatest robbery in history. Luckily, this seems to have been averted.” So far, Russia has not been able to conquer even a fraction of the targeted territory.
