On Abramovich – Shaun Walker in The Guardian:

‘In recent years, Abramovich has positioned himself as someone who has retired from the hard edge of business life and has no political ambitions. He has been known for funding cultural causes and generally living the high life. Although he can sometimes be spotted in Moscow art galleries, theatres or restaurants, the former Chelsea football club owner loathes publicity, and gives no interviews.
Information about Abramovich’s wealth and lifestyle have instead tended to come from court cases, notably an epic 2012 battle in the London courts with his former benefactor Boris Berezovsky, who claimed Abramovich had swindled him out of several billion dollars by forcing him to sell his stake in oil company Sibneft at a reduced price. The judge found in Abramovich’s favour.
More recently, Abramovich brought a libel case in London against journalist Catherine Belton, after contesting several claims in Belton’s book Putin’s People, including that he bought Chelsea at Putin’s request. Abramovich settled with Belton after her publisher agreed the book would acknowledge this was not a statement of fact.
In that court case, his lawyers claimed “Abramovich is someone who is distant from Putin”, something which has been thrown into question by his sudden appearance as an envoy.
A source in the Ukrainian delegation told news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda that Abramovich had positioned himself as a neutral intermediary, and his main role was “to pass on our position to their boss in human language”.
Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Zelenskiy, told the Guardian that Abramovich had been brought in as an intermediary by his father, a Ukrainian film producer who knows the billionaire well.’

(….)

‘“We got signals from him and from several other businessmen saying ‘let us help somehow, let us try to do something,’” said Zelenskiy. He also said Abramovich had been involved in unsuccessful discussions to organise humanitarian corridors. However, he did not mention Abramovich’s visits to Kyiv, or his own purported meetings with the oligarch.
Albats said offers from Abramovich and other Russian businessmen to help Ukraine could come from horror at the war, but also self-interest and a desire to avoid crippling western sanctions.
“It’s the way people are trying to save their villas, yachts and also to be on the right side of the struggle. Some of them at least are horrified. I know some who just couldn’t believe what happened,” said Albats. “Then there are some who are just concerned they’re unable to pay their cleaning ladies.” Many are sceptical about Abramovich’s reincarnation as peacemaker.
“How could they have forgotten who this is? He is one of the biggest sponsors of Putin’s regime,” said Maria Pevchikh, a close associate of jailed opposition leader Navalny and the head of investigations for his Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Pevchikh said she did not buy the idea that Abramovich could be an independent actor in the talks. “I’m 100% sure that this was coordinated with the Kremlin entirely. When you’ve been Putin’s puppet for 22 years you don’t suddenly go rogue,” she said.’

Read the article here.

Bellingcat claims that Abramovich was poisoned. Given the history it makes sense that Russia was behind the poisoning, why would you poison your own puppet?

The cleaning ladies really got me. If you cannot pay your cleaning ladies anymore, then what’s left of your fortune?

I said it once before, maybe we should offer a room to oligarchs who cannot afford their cleaning ladies anymore. Or maybe we should offer our services for free.

On a different note: the wish to be on the right i.e. winning side of the struggle should never be underestimated.