Swedish Radio reports that former foreign minister Carl Bildt has been become an adviser to a Russian oil company, LetterOne.
LetterOne’s owner, Mikhail Fridman, who is the second richest man in Russia and also founder and Chairman of Russia’s Alfa Group consortium, said at a press conference that his company is ” pleased to have gathered a group of world-class advisors, who will contribute to the development and growth of our international companies.”
According to the Swedish Radio report Fridman has been concerned that his company could be the target of western sanctions over the Russian occupation of Crimea. Fridman is among the most powerful Russian oligarchs.
Bildt was quoted by Russian media as saying that he is “pleased to work with a group of successful and talented entrepreneurs.”
Bildt has been hawkish on Russia and has strongly supported sanctions in the past.
In an interview with REFL in March he said that the West “should have reacted more strongly towards Russia when they started to misbehave in the summer of 2013. Clearly, when they started the sanctions against Ukraine, we didn’t see clearly the implications of that, and I remember that [former Polish Foreign Minister] Radek [Sikorski] and myself were trying to alert Brussels and Brussels was more or less asleep. Would that have made a difference? I don’t know. But that is clearly a mistake.”
As well as serving as conservative Moderate Party foreign minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt is also a former prime minister. He is a member of the International Advisory Group to the President of Ukraine.
Honoured to be part of the International Advisory Group to Ukraine President @poroshenko. http://t.co/NESwa15Did
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) May 13, 2015
Source SVT
