The World Economic Forum has barred three Russian oligarchs from attending the World Economic Forum in January. While this goes to assuage the U.S., others are less amused.
Three Russian businessmen on the sanctions list of the U.S. administration won’t be allowed to attend the Davos meeting, even though there is no legal reason as such to stop them from doing so, according to the «Financial Times» (behind paywall).
The three are Viktor Vekselberg, who has strong business interests in Switzerland, Oleg Deripaska, an industrialist, and Andrei Kostin, the head of VTB Bank. They are on the list introduced by the U.S. after the investigation into manipulation of the elections two years ago.
Putin's Allies
The exclusion of the three from the WEF came after the U.S. applied pressure on the organizers, the newspaper said. Vekselberg, Deripaska and Kostin are allies of Vladimir Putin and have been regulars at the Davos do of the rich and powerful.
The decision will likely have put a damper on hopes to get the Russian president to attend the WEF in 2019, the report said. The office of Putin confirmed that he wouldn’t attend, but because of his congested agenda and not because of the exclusion of the oligarchs.
Vekselberg already has been hit hard by the sanctions. He was forced to repay loans worth some 700 million Swiss francs ($700 million) to UBS and Credit Suisse.
