Let my oligarchs go

Prior to the 2012 Passover, the Russian Jewish Congress organized a three -day camel trip through the Arava Desert to a group of tycoons who wanted to reconstruct the exodus of the Israelites of their Egyptian captors. Properly dressed in appropriate tribal costumes (which may have been rented from the epic movie “Noah” movie, then in production), they supported the difficulties of their ancestors, although a support caravan of SUVs with essential items (such as portable air conditioning with generators to cool the Bedouin-style tents where they slept) was never far away. Revigorated and inspired by their pilgrimage, the billionaire oligarchs arrived at the Mamilla Hotel in Jerusalem to enjoy the simple luxuries to which they were used to.

The leader of these intrepid travelers reported that the desert aridity was conducive to self -analysis and a debate on philosophical themes, which could well have included commercial opportunities then existing in Ukraine troubled. Especially because many of the participants (for example, Yuri Kanner, Boris Metz, Andrei Rapport, Mikhail Fridman and German Khan) were born in that country and greatly benefited from the redistribution of their wealth after collapse of the USSR. Two years later, the Maidan Revolution and the beginning of the Russian friction war, which culminated in the invasion of 2022 and the consequent imposition of sanctions largely unenforceable on the assets of all these penitents.

For this year, which began 12 Deabril, it would be very interesting to hear the opinions of surviving members of this traveling group of godly oligarchs on the morality of contemporary Exodus imposed on Ukrainians, five million of which live as refugees in Western Europe and one million in Russia.

In addition, the two million Gaza surviving Palestinians were threatened with national eviction of their tents without warming and lame and deportation to an unprofitable land to allow a luxury real estate development in the “riviera style” to emerge as a phoenix of the ashes of their houses.

In 2012, Mr. Rapport was the only pilgrim to have a double Portuguese citizenship, but since then he joined him Roman Abramovich, Lev Leviev, God Nisanov and Gavril Yushvaev, who convinced the immigration commission that they are also direct descendants of Sephardic Jews who were forced to Exodus in 1497 by King D. Manuel I and later, and later, King D. by the Catholic Inquisition. In addition, at least twenty rich Russians who invested in Portugal through the Golden Visa Route and thus joined the Russian community of about five thousand people.

In theory, all Russian citizens have been subject to sanctions from the “foray” in Ukraine, but in practice only financial assets of around € 25 million have been detected and frozen. Considerable investments (often made through offshore holdings that use crypto-moels) in real estate and commercial enterprises, such as the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes, remain without sanctions and often exempt from taxes.

At a time when international policy is drastically moving to economic chaos policies and social discrimination, one can justifiably speculate on how oligarchs of all nationalities could make a similar trip to 2012 and then distribute their illicit gains to poor and needy refugees.

Tomar, April 14, 2025