Vladimir Potanin.
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As Russian president Vladimir Putin accused the mercenary group Wagner of “treason,” the private jets of two billionaire oligarchs, Arkady Rotenberg and Vladimir Potanin, departed Moscow for Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Two jets belonging to Russian billionaire oligarchs Arkady Rotenberg and Vladimir Potanin flew out of Moscow on Saturday, according to flight tracking service Flightradar24. The moves came hours after paramilitary forces from the Wagner Group seized control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and began a march towards the Russian capital. In a speech on Saturday morning, Russian president Vladimir Putin accused the Wagner Group of “treason,” vowing that the organizers of the insurrection would face “unavoidable punishment.” As of 2 pm Eastern time on Saturday, Russian state news agency Tass announced that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin had decided to turn his forces back from their advance on Moscow.
Despite Putin’s speech, some of the country’s richest oligarchs appeared to be fleeing the country. Arkady Rotenberg, Putin’s former judo sparring partner, is a construction magnate with an estimated fortune of $3.5 billion whose firms have received contracts for some of Putin’s prized projects, including the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the bridge that connects Russia with the illegally annexed region of Crimea in Ukraine. A Bombardier BD700 jet with tail number RA-73555, owned by Rotenberg, departed Moscow on Saturday and landed in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku just after 5 pm local time, per Flightradar24. Rotenberg has been sanctioned by the U.S., the U.K., the European Union, Switzerland and Canada.
Vladimir Potanin is the second-richest person in Russia with an estimated $23.7 billion fortune, with much of it held in shares of mining giant Norilsk Nickel. A Gulfstream G650 jet with tail number RA-11005, belonging to Norilsk Nickel via an offshore company in Cyprus, departed Moscow at 5 pm local time Saturday and is expected to arrive in Istanbul around 9:30 pm, also according to Flightradar24. (Istanbul and Moscow are in the same time zone.) Potanin has been sanctioned by the U.S., the U.K. and Canada.
Neither Turkey nor Azerbaijan have imposed sanctions on Russian oligarchs, making both countries attractive destinations for any sanctioned billionaire seeking to flee the chaos in Russia. Representatives for Rotenberg and Potanin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
The news of the departures was first reported by Russian investigative outlet IStories. It’s also unclear if Putin is still in Moscow: Two presidential planes departed the capital on Saturday in the direction of St. Petersburg but turned off their transponders, meaning that their location can’t currently be tracked. Putin’s spokesperson denied that Putin had left the city, stating that he was “working at the Kremlin” according to Tass.