Andrey Melnichenko courtesy of Maxim Marmur, via
VRT Wikimedia.

The Economist reports:

Leaders | Andrey Melnichenko, The man who would change Russia: A leading oligarch speaks out warning of the looming disaster facing his country:

Astonishingly, Russia’s biggest industrialist, Andrey Melnichenko, has opened up to The Economist about how grim things are looking for his country. In an essay and 60 hours of interviews, he lays out a series of long-term scenarios, all of which would be dangerous for Russia and the world.

He is no dissident; on the contrary, his factories have supported Mr Putin’s war economy. Nor is he, like Navalny or Mandela, a high-minded speaker of plain truth to power. What he says is often obscure or wrapped up in parables, no doubt because plain speaking in Russia is so dangerous. He espouses a fist-thumping view of Russian “sovereignty” that would dismay its neighbours, were they not already dismayed. But the fact that he is talking at all—and hinting that his country needs a more inclusive political system—is stunning.

As we also report this week, the public mood in Russia is of anxiety and “seething hatred of authorities” as petrol pumps run dry due to Ukrainian drone strikes, and Mr Putin’s vanity war goes nowhere. On The Insider, Zanny Minton Beddoes, our editor-in-chief, joins expert colleagues to discuss what to make of all this. Don’t hold your breath for a rainbow revolution in Moscow. But don’t discount the possibility of change. Watch the episode now.

Slava Ukraine!