The Times - UK (2022-04-05)

10 2GM Tuesday April 5 2022 | the times

News

Russian state media has set out its vi-
sion for a “denazified” Ukraine in which
the country will be renamed and those
who resist will either be executed or
sentenced to forced labour.
An article entitled “What should
Russia do with Ukraine?”, which was
published by Ria Novosti, the state
news agency, claimed that the majority
of Ukrainians were nazis and said they
would be made to “suffer the inevitable
hardships of a just war”.
The author, Timofei Sergeitsev, went
on to assert that Ukraine was not a real
country and was instead an “artificial
anti-Russian construct”.
Sergeitsev, 49, a columnist for Ria
Novosti since 2014, previously worked
as a political consultant for Viktor Yan-
ukovych, the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian
president who was ousted by his own
people in 2014.
He was also the screenwriter for the
2012 film, Match, about a football game

Vessel linked to Abramovich

flees ‘sanctions-risk’ marina

Nadeem Badshah

Russian vision for renamed Ukraine

in 1942 between German soldiers and

local players in occupied Kyiv. The film

was described by the Ukrainian film

agency as “the most odious example of

modern Russian propaganda directed

against the Ukrainian people”.

In his column, published yesterday,

Sergeitsev offers a number of prescrip-

tions for the task of “denazifying”

Ukraine, including “ideological repres-

sion... and strict censorship, not only in

the political sphere, but also in the

sphere of culture and education.”

After the war, Russia would oversee

its own “Nuremberg Trials”, in which

those found to have collaborated with

the “nazi regime” would either be exe-

cuted, imprisoned or sentenced to

forced labour to “restore the destroyed

infrastructure”.

Furthermore, the name of Ukraine

would be eradicated and likely replaced

with “Little Russia”, the name histori-

cally applied to Ukrainian territories

under Russian imperial rule.

The article concludes by accepting

that the war will constitute a defining

break with the West. “In order to put

the plan of denazification of Ukraine

into practice, Russia itself will have to

finally part with pro-European and

pro-western illusions, realise itself as

the last instance of protecting and pre-

serving those values of historical

Europe that deserve it and which the

West ultimately abandoned, losing the

fight for itself,” Sergeitsev wrote.

Moreover, the massacre in Bucha

was written off in state media as a fake,

aimed at discrediting President Putin.

Russian officials said that the images

from Bucha were staged and anyone

spreading them could face up to 15

years in prison under a new law barring

“disinformation” about the actions of

the Russian army.

Mitya Aleshkovskiy, a journalist and

charity worker, wrote: “When the war

ends, the people of Russia will face the

issue of the need for repentance. With-

out repentance, it is impossible to imag-

ine any future for Russia.”

Tom Ball

A 140-metre superyacht thought to be

owned by Roman Abramovich has left

a marina in Turkey after claims that the

UK-listed operator of the port risked

violating sanctions by harbouring it.

Solaris, which has a helipad and a

swimming pool, left Bodrum Cruise

Port yesterday and was anchored in the

Aegean Sea last night, according to the

tracking service Marine Traffic.

Global Ports Holding, the world’s

largest cruise port operator, said on

Sunday that it would not take berthing

fees from the yacht.

The company insisted it was not

guilty of a sanctions breach because the

yacht was berthed outside the UK and it

had no right to turn away a boat from

the Bodrum port, which is owned by the

Turkish state. It comes after lawyers told

the Financial Times that the company

was at risk of violating UK sanctions.

Solaris, which was completed last year,

is worth $474 million according to the

yacht data service VesselsValue.

The superyacht is understood to have

48 cabins, eight decks, an outdoor

beach club, a lift, a gym and a sauna.

Another yacht linked to Abram-

ovich, the 163-metre Eclipse, is moored

in the Turkish port of Marmaris.

A superyacht berth in a marina can

cost £10,000 a day, Michael Biltoo, a

partner at the law firm Kennedys, said.

The FT reported last week that Sola-

ris and Eclipse were among a fleet of

five yachts linked to Abramovich that

together are worth almost $1 billion.

Abramovich, 55, was among a group

of Russian oligarchs targeted by UK

and EU sanctions last month. The own-

er of Chelsea Football Club has been

playing a role as a mediator in peace

talks between Kyiv and Moscow.

The leader of Chechnya has criticised
President Putin’s spokesman, prompt-
ing fears that he could be plotting to
seize control of Russia’s security elite.
Ramzan Kadyrov, 45, accused Dmitri
Peskov of failing to recognise true
patriotism amid the war in Ukraine.
“Something should be done about this,”
Kadyrov said.
A former separatist fighter, Kadyrov
shifted his allegiance to the Kremlin in

2000. He rules Chechnya, a mainly
      Muslim republic in southern Russia,
      with an iron grip. His forces have been
      accused of rights abuses, including
      torture and extrajudicial killings. He
      has described the Kremlin’s war in
      Ukraine as a “jihad” for Chechen
      fighters.
      “Peskov was considered a kind of
      incarnation of Putin and no one had
      disputed this status. He was
      indestructible and untouchable. Not
      now,” wrote Kirill Rogov, a Russian
      political analyst.
      The Chechen leader’s comments
      came shortly after he also criticised
      Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the
      Kremlin’s delegation at talks with

Ukraine, over his announcement of the
withdraw from the Kyiv region.
Kadyrov suggested that Medinsky’s
mouth should be taped shut.
A purported FSB whistleblower
known as the Wind of Change says that
Kadyrov had been emboldened by the
invasion of Ukraine.
“It seems he has decided to go for
broke. Kadyrov launched a powerful
campaign in the Kremlin to discredit
the leaders of the security wing,” the
unnamed whistleblower wrote in mes-
sages published by Vladimir Osechkin,
an exiled human rights activist.
“Now there is such turbulence that
he might succeed. If [Putin] gives him
the security bloc, even partially, tomor-
row he will have all of Russia in his
hands. The party of war and the party of
peace are already moving to the point
of their direct conflict.”
However, Tatiana Stanovaya, a polit-
ical analyst who focuses on the Krem-
lin, said that it was far-fetched to expect

Ramzan Kadyrov

questioned the

patriotism of

President Putin’s

spokesman

News War in Ukraine

Chechen warlord exposes splits

Tom Ball that Kadyrov could take control of the
security wing. “Kadyrov is a problem
for the Kremlin, yes. But Putin only has
to call him to the Kremlin and tell him
that there are red lines that he can’t
cross. Right now, he’s busy with other
things. While Putin is strong, this is not
a massive problem for him.”
She also said that while many people
in the Russian elite wanted an end to
the war, it was wishful thinking to
expect them to make a decisive move.
“We have to distinguish between those
people who are against the war and
those who are ready to act,” she said.
“The business and political elite
realises that they cannot influence
Putin. And no one knows how he sees
the exit from this crisis.”
Kadyrov said that Peskov had failed
to congratulate him on being promoted
to the rank of lieutenant general and
had instead described Ivan Urgant, a
TV presenter who posted an anti-war
message to social media, as a “great
patriot.” Peskov sought to dismissed
Kadyrov’s comments, saying that it was
unhelpful for officials to try to outdo
one another by proving who was the
most patriotic.
As the war continues, the Soviet-era
practice of informing on “disloyal” citi-
zens is making a comeback. A school-
teacher in Penza, central Russia, is fac-
ing up to ten years in jail after some of
her pupils recorded her criticising the
war. Irina Gen, an English teacher, said
that Russia was a “totalitarian state”.
Marina Dubrova, another English
teacher in Russia’s far eastern region,
was recently fined 30,000 roubles
(£270) after her pupils filmed her as she
spoke out against the war during a
lesson. If she is charged again with the
same offence within a year, she could
face prison time. The government has
organised a series of special lessons at
schools across Russia to “enlighten”
children on what the Kremlin says is a
“special operation to denazify and
demilitarize” Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, the former
president who is now deputy head of
the security council, warned yesterday
that Russians should be vigilant on the
lookout for “traitors”.
“Those who love the Motherland
have very different faces,” he said.
“Traitors have just one face — the face
of a traitor. The important thing is to
identify these faces.”
Putin said last month that Russia
would “spit out” opponents of the war,
describing them as “scum” and
“traitors”.

FBI seizes

oligarch’s

yacht in

Mallorca

W

ashington

has issued

its first

order to

seize a

Russian oligarch’s yacht,

sending FBI agents to

impound a $90 million

vessel in Mallorca (Tom

Kington writes).

Federal agents teamed

up with Spain’s Civil

Guard to take control of

the Tango, which has

been linked to Viktor

Vekselberg, 64, a mining

tycoon who is an ally of

President Putin.

Vekselberg, who faced

questioning by the

Mueller investigation into

Russian interference in

the 2016 US presidential

election, was first

sanctioned by the US in

2018 over his Kremlin ties

and named again as a

target after Russia’s

invasion of Ukraine. He

has also been placed on

the UK’s sanctions list.

Spanish authorities said

enforce sanctions since

the outbreak of the war.

The Civil Guard said it

has discovered “a

complex financial and

partnership scheme”

designed to conceal

Vekselberg’s ownership of

the 78-metre yacht.

Elsewhere in Europe,

governments that have

seized mega-yachts linked

to oligarchs were puzzling

over who pays for their

upkeep, with Italy

considering renting out

the vessels.

The Italian tax police

seized three yachts and

villas worth a total of

€900 million (£

million) and handed the

assets over to the state

property agency for

that the raid was carried

out after a request from

the US which has set up a

task force called Repo —

Russian Elites, Proxies

and Oligarchs — to

Spanish Civil Guards

watched Viktor Vekselberg’s

yacht in Palma as colleagues

and US federal agents

searched the vessel