“It is not possible to exert any influence on Putin and his decisions are unpredictable”
n the evening after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine last February, he summoned around 40 business tycoons to the Kremlin for an audience. Among them was the controlling shareholder of Norilsk Nickel (or Nornickel), Vladimir Potanin – one of the country’s richest men and “one of the few original oligarchs