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Roman Abramovich made his fortune in the 1990s in Russia, at a time when businesses such as oil, gas and commodity trading might only be done with strong political connections. He himself admits it. To succeed Boris Yeltsin, a number of oligarchs supported Vladimir Putin, notably Abramovich. “I welcomed the changes made by Putin,” he once said. We see them in photos together. Abramovich was then deputy, then governor. In 2005, he sold his biggest company, Sibneft, to the state.
