Run for the Money 

Early in March, Abramovich suffered from symptoms of what appeared to be poisoning, including losing his eyesight for several hours, after meeting with Ukrainians in Kyiv in an effort to mediate peace. Two Ukrainians with whom he met suffered similar symptoms.

Russian is notorious for its efforts to poison its opponents, but Abramovich is known to be close to Putin, and is even currently the target of heavy sanctions by the European Union and Britain because of these close ties. How is it possible that he was the victim of such a mysterious attack, with the apparent warning fingerprints of the Russians?

While media outlets, and later confidants of Abramovich, claimed that the Kremlin did not like the fact that he was trying to make peace with Ukraine, Moscow, of course, denied any attempts to poison him. In fact, it’s thought that Putin was the one who unofficially sent him in the first place.

According to Russian insiders, after a secret private meeting with several oligarchs at the start of the war, Putin gave his personal blessing for Abramovich to act as a mediator in peace talks, even though Putin has referred to elite Russians who sympathize with the West as “scum and traitors.”