March 26 (Reuters) – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has asked oligarchs to donate to the country’s budget in a bid to stabilise the country’s finances as he presses on with his invasion of Ukraine, The Bell online media outlet reported late on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.
It said Putin met top Russia’s businessmen behind closed doors on Thursday.
The Financial Times also published a similar report on Thursday, citing three people familiar with the matter.
The Bell, citing the sources, said Putin discussed military funding and continuation of the war, which is in its fifth year since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russia will fight on, Putin said, until it captures the remaining areas of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region not under its control, the report added.
The Bell also said billionaire Suleiman Kerimov at the meeting with Putin pledged to donate 100 billion roubles ($1.23 billion).
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Calls to Kerimov’s office in Russia’s Federation Council were not answered outside of business hours on Friday.
As the war in Ukraine drags on, Russia is facing a double whammy of falling budget revenues from energy sales and of an economic slowdown, which affects tax income from other sectors of the economy.
Sources told Reuters earlier this month that the Russian government has been preparing a possible 10% cut to all “non-sensitive” spending in this year’s budget, but the final decision will hinge on the sustainability of the oil price rise triggered by the Iran war.
($1 = 81.2000 roubles)
(Reporting by Angela Christy in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast.)
