Thread by @maxseddon

Putin has summoned the oligarchs for a meeting in the Kremlin later today, the Kremlin says.

Behold Russia's business elite, in the Kremlin's Hall of the Order of St Catherine, where the astonishing security council session with Putin was on Monday.

Alexander Shokhin, who heads the oligarch lobby group, is talking about cryptocurrency regulation as Ukraine burns.

Herman Gref of Sberbank – one of the few heads of major state companies and longtime Putin confidantes not on US sanctions yet – has worn a blueberry suit for the occasion. He does not look thrilled to be there.

This is Gazprom Neft's Alexander Dyukov, considered one of Russia's most talented corporate executives. He's missing the UEFA meeting on stripping St Petersburg of the Champions League final to be here

Putin claims he was forced into the invasion.

"What's happening is by necessity. They could have created such risks for us that it wasn't clear how the country [Russia – not Ukraine] could have continued to exist."

The full list of oligarchs who met Putin is out, but the Kremlin website is a bit screwy. Here they all are in the next part of the thread:

kremlin.ru/events/preside…

AVEN Petr Olegovich - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa Bank Banking Group, Chairman of the Board of Directors of AlfaStrakhovanie JSC

AKIMOV Andrey Igorevich - Chairman of the Board, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gazprombank JSC

ALEKPEROV Vagit Yusufovich – President of PJSC LUKOIL

BELOZYOROV Oleg Valentinovich - President - Chairman of the Board of JSC "Russian Railways"

BOKAREV Andrey Removich - President of JSC "Transmashholding"

VINOKUROV Alexander Semenovich - Member of the Board of Directors of the Magnit retail chain, President of Marathon Group

GREF German Oskarovich - President, Chairman of the Board of PJSC Sberbank of Russia

GURIEV Andrey Andreevich – General Director of PJSC PhosAgro

DYUKOV Alexander Valerievich – Chairman of the Board, General Director of Gazprom Neft PJSC

EVTUSHENKOV Vladimir Petrovich - Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC AFK Sistema

KERIMOV Suleiman Abusaidovich - founder of the investment holding "Nafta Moscow"

KIRIENKO Vladimir Sergeevich - General Director of VK

KOGOGIN Sergey Anatolyevich - General Director, Chairman of the Board of PJSC "KAMAZ"

KONOV Dmitry Vladimirovich – Chairman of the Board of PJSC SIBUR Holding

KOSTIN Andrey Leonidovich - President - Chairman of the Board of PJSC VTB Bank

KULIKOV Sergey Alexandrovich - Chairman of the Board of Management Company RUSNANO LLC

LIKHACHEV Alexey Evgenyevich - General Director of the State Atomic Energy Corporation "Rosatom"

MAZEPIN Dmitry Arkadievich - General Director of JSC UCC Uralchem

MELNICHENKO Andrey Igorevich - Member of the Board of Directors of JSC SUEK

MILLER Alexey Borisovich – Chairman of the Board of PJSC Gazprom

MIKHELSON Leonid Viktorovich – Chairman of the Board of PJSC NOVATEK

MORDASHOV Alexey Alexandrovich – Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC Severstal

MOSHKOVICH Vadim Nikolaevich - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Rusagro group of companies

OSEEVSKY Mikhail Eduardovich – President of PJSC Rostelecom

POLUBOYARINOV Mikhail Igorevich - General Director of PJSC Aeroflot - Russian Airlines

POTANIN Vladimir Olegovich - President of CJSC Holding Company Interros

PUMPYANSKY Dmitry Alexandrovich - Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC Pipe Metallurgical Company

RASHEVSKY Vladimir Valerievich - General Director of PJSC "Evrokhim"

Ryumin Andrey Valerievich - General Director of PJSC Russian Grids

SECHIN Igor Ivanovich - Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Board of PJSC NK Rosneft

Tokarev Nikolay Petrovich – Chairman of the Board, President of PJSC Transneft

FRADKOV Petr Mikhailovich - Chairman of PJSC Promsvyazbank

KHUDAVERDYAN Tigran Oganesovich - Managing Director of Yandex

SHOKHIN Alexander Nikolaevich - President of the "Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs"

SHUVALOV Igor Ivanovich - Chairman of VEB.RF

SHULGIN Alexander Alexandrovich - CEO of OZON

This list shows you how much Kremlin Inc has changed since Putin came to power. You'd only call a handful of these guys, like Yevtushenkov, oligarchs in the classical sense. A lot of them are state company bosses with KGB pasts like Akimov and Sechin