Andrey Melnichenko, founder of fertilizer companies Evrokhim and Siberian Coal Energy Company (SIBEKO), in an interview with the newspaper Finance Times He called Western sanctions against him criminal and compared them to nuclear bombing.
The entrepreneur admitted that the restrictions imposed on him in 2022 came as a surprise.
“I don’t make weapons for war. <…> I do not encourage war. I am not doing politics. What’s the purpose?”
He added that Western sanctions have become “weapons of mass destruction”, harming millions of people who have nothing to do with the conflict in Ukraine. He also said that such measures are exacerbating the problem of hunger in poor countries.
According to the businessman, the situation is similar to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, which no longer had significant military targets, but the attack inflicted pain on many people, despite the predictability of the outcome of the war.
Before that, the Attorney General requested save businessman Andrey Melnichenko in favor of the SIBECO state.
Formerly Melnichenko -headed Forbes’s ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia.