OLM

It’s been a difficult year filled with hate, fear and anger. One group after another has taken to the streets almost every week to either protest a perceived abuse or to advocate for a passionately believed cause. So, we have Black Lives Matter, White Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, Unborn Lives Matter, Women’s Lives Matter, All Lives Matter and others. Through all this tumult, the pains of one particular depressed, oppressed, suppressed and distressed group has received almost no public recognition or sympathy.

I’m talking, of course, about Russian Oligarchs.

Since January of 2022 being a Russian oligarch has not been a picnic. Western sanctions have gutted their bank accounts, confiscated their Megayachts, and put a real crimp in their globe trotting social lives. There’s hardly anything sadder to imagine than a Russian oligarch sitting alone in his dacha on a Friday night with only a wife in a babushka and a bottle of vodka to comfort him.

Still, you have to wonder why eight of these Russian business icons have committed suicide since January. You kinda think these guys must have stashed away enough rubles in the mattresses of their London townhouses, Costa del Sol beachfront mansions or St. Moritz ski chalets to weather the Ukraine war that brought about these sanctions.

But you’d be wrong.

Two Russian realities need to be understood. First, although these guys are nominally business royalty in Russia, in reality, they are only placeholders for the real boss, Vladimir Putin. Putin is reputed to have a fortune that dwarfs Bezos’ and Musk’s combined, but you won’t find his fingerprints on any bank notes. The oligarchs are the babysitters for Putin’s fortune and, although they may be President of their companies, it is a VP—Vladimir Putin—who controls their lives and, some say, their deaths. Which brings us to the second point.

Among the eight suicides, all of the deceased died under suspicious circumstances and in at least two cases, killed their wives and children at the same time. That seems unusual, until you realize that Russia has a “forced inheritance” rule in its law. Wives and children, and even parents, inherit from a deceased husband and father, even if the guy made a Will giving his estate to others. But if there are no living wives, children or parents guess where the money goes? Answer, to the Russian government i.e. Vladimir Putin.

So, I think this injustice should be recognized. Oligarch Lives Matter!