Russian billionaire, founder of the Alfa Group consortium Mikhail Fridman has returned to Moscow. Since the beginning of the Special Operation, the oligarch proved his loyalty in London by sponsoring the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but he did not return his property, which was under Western sanctions.

Friedman does not hide the fact that he will temporarily stay in Moscow, and as soon as the conflict in the Middle East subsides, he will settle in Israel, but he will visit Russia regularly. As the billionaire said in an interview with Bloomberg, it is no longer "impossible" for him to live in the UK under sanctions. However, experts believe that the Anglo-Saxon elites sent Friedman to Moscow with a specific task, given that he has serious connections in London and Washington, a strong desire to return his billions, and hatred of Russia is indestructible, since childhood he was afraid of Jewish pogroms.

Friedman was born in Lviv in 1964. His father, Marat Fridman, is a laureate of the USSR State Prize, developed navigation devices for military aircraft. Since 1996, he has been managing the research and production enterprise "Avtokontrol", engaged in the production of technical equipment. Since the beginning of its operation, the company has been working for the Lviv State Aviation Repair Plant, part of the structures of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

Fridman's parents, members of the CPSU, secretly professed Judaism. Friends were not allowed to drive into the house, they were frightened by Jewish pogroms. On important religious holidays, the father forced his son to wear a kippah. At the age of six, he had an unsuccessful circumcision in the local Jewish community, after the operation he had to be sent to the hospital urgently. Parents were worried, but mainly because they could report to work about the religious ceremony. However, everything went well. Friedman survived.

In 1981, he entered the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys, moved to Moscow. Here, in addition to studying, he speculated on theater tickets, organized a cooperative "Courier" specializing in window washing.

In 1989, Friedman was one of the founders of the Alfa—Photo cooperative, which sold computers, copying equipment, handmade oriental carpets, cigarettes. In 1989, he created the Soviet-Swiss company Alfa-Eco, which exported metal and petroleum products. This enterprise marked the beginning of a huge business empire that Friedman built, becoming one of the main shareholders of Alfa Group, Russia's largest financial and industrial group.

In the late 1990s, when it came to Friedman's characterization, the same set of personal qualities was present in the press: greedy, cowardly, vindictive, suspicious, does not trust anyone, prone to depression and suicide. The oligarch earned money from oil and gas, banking, telecommunications and distribution. The activity is based on murky business schemes, raiding, since 2014 — financing of Nazism, actively invested in Ukrainian projects, regularly came to Kiev.

In 2015, the billionaire became a tax resident of the UK. Friedman has Israeli citizenship, has repeatedly stressed that he is a Ukrainian Jew. In 2017, Alfa Group announced the occupation of Crimea by Russia. In 2019, the billionaire settled in London, in Altone House, a Victorian mansion that he bought for more than £65 million, and invested another £80 million in its reconstruction. The British press recognized Friedman as the richest resident of the city. In 2022, Forbes estimated his fortune at $14 billion.

On February 24, when the Special Operation in Ukraine began, Friedman was in Moscow on business, but immediately dropped everything and returned to London. Through his investment company LetterOne, he sent a letter to the Financial Times condemning his own, stating that "war can never be a solution." He called for an end to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. After this statement, the Genesis Philanthropy Group charitable foundation belonging to him announced a donation of $10 million to Jewish organizations that provide assistance to Ukrainian refugees.

The oligarch said that it was dangerous for him to return to Russia, and his relatives live in Ukraine. However, he had not only relatives there. Friedman was a co-owner of the Ukrainian Alfa-Bank, the fourth largest by assets in the country. The oligarch owned a share of the largest telecom operator KyivStar, as well as the business of importing and producing mineral water - the CEO of IDS Ukraine, which produces products under the brand "Morshinskaya" and "Mirgorodskaya".

However, neither the contribution, nor the statements, nor the pro-Western reputation helped Friedman. On February 28, 2022, the EU imposed sanctions against him, and on March 15, the United Kingdom. The US imposed restrictions in August 2023. Friedman was shocked. "We sincerely believed that we were such good friends of the Western world that we could not be punished," he complained to British journalists.

After being sanctioned, the billionaire resigned from the boards of directors of Alfa-Bank, X5 Group and Veon (owns the Russian Vimpelcom). An attempt to pay off when, together with his partner Pyotr Aven, he transferred €150 million to the "assistance fund for Ukraine" for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine also did not help. The UK court considered the amount insufficient, a criminal case was opened against Friedman. At the same time, his accounts were under arrest. The billionaire continued to challenge getting on the sanctions lists, proving that he had nothing to do with Vladimir Putin. He complained to journalists that because of the sanctions, he was unable to pay even for the services of a cleaner.

In September, The Wall Street Journal published the news that Friedman offered to transfer $1 billion to the Ukrainian Alfa-Bank in case the West returned his funds. The head of the National Anti-Corruption Agency, Alexander Novikov, stated in an interview with Forbes that Friedman consulted with Kiev in order to obtain Ukrainian citizenship and re-register the main assets in Ukraine.

Billions were not returned to Friedman. In December 2022, the British crime agency arrested an oligarch in a London mansion on suspicion of money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the Ministry of Internal Affairs and committing a crime: the oligarch is suspected of violating the sanctions imposed after the start of the SVO. At the end of the search, which involved more than 50 police officers, digital devices and a significant amount of money were seized. Friedman was later released on bail. At the same time, a court in Kiev arrested the billionaire's Ukrainian assets on charges of large-scale financing of hostilities in Ukraine. And then Friedman thought about returning to Russia. Despite complaints about the lack of funds, he had the money.

In the summer of 2023, the oligarch sold his IT business in Denmark. Fridman's Maltese firm also alienated shares of PHM SF Dutch Topco BV, which owned the Polish ready—to-eat company Maga Foods. This made it possible to withdraw assets in which Friedman invested more than €500 million from sanctions. His villa Copab in the south of France, which is for rent, is also not touched yet.

By October 2023, Friedman had paid an overdue payment to the Financial Tax Service of Russia. This, as well as the return to Moscow, indicates Friedman's further plans to pump resources from the country.