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Let’s talk about the oligarchs, especially since
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there’s a good reason to do so: thanks to
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one of them, all of us have become
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a little
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poorer. Alisher Usmanov, the richest man in
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Russia, with a fortune of more than $13 billion,
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has given up his Russian tax
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residency. Even though—what
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wonderful words he was saying just three years
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ago. Quote: “I am proud to live in Russia,”
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“that I am
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Russian.” He officially notified the Russian
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authorities that he spends most of the year
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living in the United Kingdom and Switzerland,
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and therefore will no longer pay taxes in
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Russia. In practice, this means the following:
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there is Usmanov’s oligarchic empire, and it
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is called Metalloinvest, and the main
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source of income in this empire
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is its mining and processing plants,
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these giant enterprises built
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back in the Soviet Union and later
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privatized. They belong to
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offshore Cypriot companies, and those Cypriot
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companies belong to other Cypriot
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companies, and those belong to yet more
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companies. In short, in the end
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all of it belongs to Alisher Usmanov, and
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under the law, these mining and processing
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plants transfer profits to their
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owners—that is, the offshore companies—and they transfer
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the money to their owner, that very same
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oligarch. And as a tax resident, he
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is required to pay taxes on it, but he
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doesn’t want to, and so he tells all of us:
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“Hello, my dear friends in Russia, I
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no longer live in your country, and I will
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not be paying taxes to you.”
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And do you know who I think about at that moment?
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I think about the workers at the Lebedinsky
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Mining and Processing Plant, or
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the Mikhailovsky plant, about the miners and
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foundry workers at the other enterprises bought
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up by Usmanov. These people work their asses off for peanuts
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in workshops and open pits, from head to toe
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covered in dust. They breathe that dust, they
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work in hazardous industries, they
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die much earlier than average, they
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become disabled at a young age
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so that Usmanov can earn his
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billions—and he doesn’t even want to pay taxes in
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Russia. No matter what kind of
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elaborate legal ownership scheme they may have built
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for holding assets, you and I
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understand perfectly well that the real
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source of his wealth is those very
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miners underground, hauling from beneath
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the earth iron ore concentrate for sale,
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which belongs to all of us.
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It is natural raw material and part of the national
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wealth of Russia. Do you know what the
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average salary is at one of
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Usmanov’s biggest enterprises, at the
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Mikhailovsky Mining Plant? 38,000 rubles
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38,000 rubles a month, just for extremely hard work in
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harmful and dangerous conditions. And that, too,
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is a source of enrichment for Usmanov, because he
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simply underpays his workers.
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How much does a miner earn in the United States, the country
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where Usmanov happily invests the money
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earned in Russia? 330,000 rubles a
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month. And at this point, do you know what
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I’m thinking about? The magnificent yacht called
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Dilbar.
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[music]
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We made a separate video about it. You
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can watch it—the link is on screen. It is
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the largest and most luxurious yacht in the
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world, and Alisher Usmanov recently bought it
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for $600 million. So he has money for a yacht,
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but not for taxes in Russia
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or decent wages for his workers.
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I looked it up on Wikipedia: the total
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number of employees at Usmanov’s enterprises is
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60,000 people. If the average salary at all
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his enterprises is the same as at the
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Mikhailovsky plant, then
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it turns out that buying a yacht for his own
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entertainment cost one and a half years’ worth of
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salary for all employees combined.
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After some time, people will all get used
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to the idea that making money
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is just a job like any other, and
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of course, someone will now say to me:
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“Alexei, this is capitalism. Are you
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against a businessman’s right
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to spend his money however he
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wants—like buying himself a yacht, for example?” And
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my answer is this: I am not against
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capitalism. I simply do not think that this
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is capitalism at all, and I do not consider either Usmanov
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or the other commodity oligarchs
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to be businessmen at all. These people created nothing,
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they invented nothing, they
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simply profit from old Soviet
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enterprises and the sale of raw materials
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that belong to me, to you, and to everyone
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else. It is a monstrous, perverse, and
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unjust system. To hell with
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this kind of capitalism, where
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all the national wealth belongs
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to a couple dozen people—Putin’s friends
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and Putin’s oligarchs. Nothing like this exists in
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any capitalist country, neither in
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Europe nor in the United States. Turn on
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the TV right now, and they’ll tell you about the
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hostile actions being taken against us by the
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sinister forces of the West, but they won’t say a word
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about the fact that one of the main
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Russian oligarchs has already fled
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our country’s tax residency, and
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the Kremlin has nothing against it. Even though
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this is the real war against
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our country. What should be done in this
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situation? Obviously, the legislation can be changed
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so that commodity
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oligarchs actually pay large
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taxes—the kind they pay in all
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countries. But who wants this least of all?
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The Kremlin, because that’s where
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the chief oligarch sits, and he too hides his
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capital abroad. If you agree with
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my view on this problem,
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help spread this video.
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Subscribe to our channel here
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they tell the truth.