Putin gathers the oligarchs to ask them for funds for the war and promises that he will not stop until he occupies the entire Donbas.

“It is not true that Putin made such a request,” the Kremlin spokesman reacted, Dmitri Peskovwho ended up later acknowledging that, in a patriotic outburst, one of those attending the event had shown interest in donating “a very large sum of money” to the Russian Federation. “It was absolutely his initiative and not that of President Putin,” he said. “Although, of course, the head of state welcomed this initiative.”

Peskov then went on to explain how this oligarch, whose identity he avoided revealing, commented during the meeting that the majority of those present had managed to amass their fortune in the turbulent era of liberalization of the nineties, that they had taken advantage of the decomposition of the State to get rich, and that, now, it was time to return the favor. “It was a family decision,” Peskov concluded, in statements collected by the agency Interfax.

The information of The Bell identified the senator Suleiman Kerimov like the altruistic oligarch who, without thinking twice, offered Putin a sum of 100 billion rubles (around 1 billion euros).

Kerimov holds a seat in the Russian Federation Council representing Dagestan, the republic of which he is originally from. A trained economist, he made a career investing in assets in sectors such as oil, gas, precious metals and fertilizers. He also made money on shares of Sberbank and Gazprom. It was placed on the sanctions list of the United Kingdom and the European Union following the large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The metal magnate Oleg Deripaskapresident of the RUSAL Unified Company, was another of those who volunteered to correct Russia’s enormous budget deficit, which soared in the months of January and February to more than 90% of the figure planned for the entire year.

“Russia entered 2026 with an economy that showed unmistakable signs of fatigue,” emphasizes the economist Bluebird Parviainen In a report published in the European Leadership Network, a think tank based in London. “The remarkable economic growth of 2023 and 2024 was never organic; it was a consequence of massive public spending.”

No end to the war

During the closed-door meeting in the Kremlin, Putin let his guests know that Russia would not stop the so-called “special military operation” until it conquers the areas of Donbas that still escape its control, according to The Bell.

“The scenario of Russia taking control of Donbas this year seems unlikely,” he points out in conversation with this newspaper. Oleg Ignatovan analyst with the International Crisis Group, who senses that the war will continue until 2027.

“On the other hand,” the expert argues, “even if Russia manages to take the Donbas, other problems will still exist, and the lack of a solution to these issues could lead to the continuation of the war.”

“It is a recognition that negotiations within the current framework have reached an impasse. Russia recognizes that Ukraine will not accept the solution it wants for Donbas and that the United States does not have the necessary pressure capacity to force Ukraine to accept such a solution,” concludes Ignatov.