What could
two Russian oligarchs on the run do together in a prestigious restaurant in northern
Tel-Aviv? This is the subject of a piece by a Ha’arets columnist who
witnessed a meeting last week between Mikhail Chernoi and Boris Berezovsky, who
had lunch at the Turkiz restaurant in the Tel-Baruch quarter, well-known among
other things as a place where elite gashes are hooked and high-quality hamp is sold. With them were one young man and three
girls. At the end of the meal, Chernoi and Berezovsky rise from their chairs, leave
generous tips for the shift supervisor and continue their lively discussion in
the vestibule, walking around it a few times. The young man, a stranger to the
Ha’arets journalist, photographs one of the girls on the stairway as she
descends to the beach, while the two others fluidly leave together with the oligarchs.
The
Ha’arets journalist tells the readers of its financial supplement that Boris
Berezovsky made his fortune in Russia
during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin. But with the ascent of Vladimir Putin,
Yeltsin lost his political weight. He could no longer engage in his former shady
practices, and fell into disfavor among the authorities. Like other Russian oligarchs
who aroused the attention of Russia’s
General Prosecutor’s Office, Boris Berezovsky decided to leave the country. London was to be his new
home. Fortunately for Berezovsky, the British government refused to comply with
the demand of the Russian government to extradite him. Having sold all of his
Russian assets, he now conducts business exclusively abroad and is in
litigation in London
with his former Russian partner Roman Abramovich. Forbes Magazine estimates Berezovsky’s
fortune at $1.1 bn.
Ha’arets also reports that Mikhail Chernoi
was a partner of Boris Berezovsky and Oleg Deripaska in the creation of the Rusal
aluminum company. Today Chernoi is demanding that Deripaska pay him 40% of the value
of the company—about 6 billion dollars. Chernoi chose to live in Israel, but
the Israeli Supreme Court gave the Israeli Internal Affairs Ministry two months
to make a decision and put an end to the protracted process of depriving him of
citizenship, which has been going on since 2004. According to Ha’arets,
Mikhail Chernoi has common business and political projects with Berezovsky, and
the meeting at the Turkiz restaurant was devoted to a discussion of their joint
struggle against their former business partners and furthering the oligarchs’ interests
in Georgia and Ukraine.
So what is
it that unites Chernoi and Berezovsky? A better question would be: what is the
difference between them? Both are on the run (Berezovsky is afraid to come to Russia, and Chernoi is simply barred from
entering the United States, Switzerland
and a number of other countries), both are in litigation. And both have very
problematic reputations. Neither one has a business per se. And everything else
is in the past. Perhaps the two girls from the Turkiz restaurant simply didn’t
know about this?
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