Putin advises the business elite to invest in Russia

On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Russia’s business elite, telling them that ordinary Russians had no sympathy for their lost yachts and palaces and urging them to invest at home instead.

Russian oligarchs and businesspeople have been targeted by broad Western sanctions in response to Moscow’s deployment of tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine nearly a year ago, with property and yachts among the assets frozen or seized.

Putin recalled Russia’s 1990s privatization drive, which resulted in state businesses being sold for next to nothing, and the «ostentatious luxury of the so-called new elites,» saying that ordinary citizens did not feel sympathy for those who lost money in foreign banks or were forced to give up their yachts and palaces abroad.

As a result of the conflict in Ukraine, Putin welcomed what he called a long overdue structural transformation of the Russian economy and declared it risky for Russian businesses to be dependent on the West.

Although the emphasis on domestic investment was a turn inward, Russia is also considering new markets. The Asia-Pacific region was cited by Putin as one of the newest and most promising global markets.

On Tuesday, the top diplomat from China was scheduled to land in Moscow. A «no limits» alliance between Beijing and Moscow was signed last year.