"Really overwhelming": Experts Evaluated Abramovich's New Yacht

Novye Izvestia listened to different opinions.

Yelena Ivanova, Natalia Seibil

The political scientist, general director of the Center for Political Information Alexey Mukhin at first refused to discuss the new purchase of Roman Abramovich, then he thought and said:

- I would not like to comment on the painful fantasies of Roman Arkadievich Abramovich. I've been watching him for a long time. His behavior is sometimes disconcerting.

Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Professor of the Department of Ethics, Faculty of Philosophy, Moscow State University. Lomonosov Aslan Gadzhikurbanov did not know about Abramovich's new yacht, but recalled the events of 12 years ago:

- I remember his first yacht, it came in 2009 when the stock market crashed. She then very successfully appeared and caused a corresponding reaction. What's the difference - what is one, what two, what three.

This is viewed not from the point of view of ethics, in general, but from the point of view of social justice. I do not want to give harsh definitions, but it is irresponsible, immoral, socially unfair.

Yachts of this class are economically impractical, says economist and entrepreneur Dmitry Potapenko. Another thing is that there is an indirect economic interest here, when you make Disneyland on the water and host the best people in the world:

- But here you have to match not your own tastes, but the tastes of the people you will receive. Whether you have an aquadiskotheque on your yacht, or a mud room, or a golden brush, that is, you build all this, but not for yourself. This is Disneyland on the water.

Georgy Ostapkovich, another economist, director of the School of Business Studies at the Higher School of Economics, points out that Abramovich's yacht is a kind of real estate:

- The yacht creates jobs. It employs 50-100 people. It also brings income not only to those who invest in the yacht, but the yacht is being repaired, it is moored in ports. This is real estate. How do people buy apartments for themselves? Why do you need an apartment if you have a 20-meter apartment and you want to move into a two-room 40-meter apartment? Buying real estate is consumption.

This is not the creation of capital, you are not making a turbine, which will further bring money and more capital. Depending on their income, people have a different consumer basket. A person who lives at a cost of living has one consumer basket, but he is still consuming. Abramovich, who is on the Forbes list, has a different consumer basket.

Comparing American and Russian billionaires, Dmitry Potapenko says that Elon Musk has the opportunity to invest, for example, in space, while Roman Abramovich does not have such an opportunity:

- We love to kick these people, but let's fantasize: do they have such an opportunity to fly into space in the Russian Federation? Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin will appear immediately. As soon as you take the door from the washing machine to make a porthole out of it, Mr. Rogozin will immediately appear. Our super-rich can't do anything but a yacht, because they need free space. Prokhorov could not make a car, because this requires a sales line. Where can I get it? These are all infrastructure projects that need not just money, but infrastructure that costs much more money than a yacht.

Political scientist Sergey Markov, comparing the oligarchs of the first draft, to which Roman Abramovich belongs, considers the latter to be more socially responsible with Putin's appeal. Roman Abramovich and others are children of the 90s:

- The idea came into their heads that the more money you stole and spent on personal consumption, the more luck you have. This is a dead-end branch of social development, which is why in Russia they curse the 90s so much and support Vladimir Putin, who pulled Russia out of the 90s.

Vladimir Putin, who himself lived under Soviet rule, remembers well the Soviet poverty and dullness, the political scientist says. This explains his hyperhumanism to people like Abramovich. We must not forget that Roman Abramovich has merits to Putin:

- Although Abramovich is a burp of the 90s, Putin appreciates him for being instrumental in taking money and politically bringing down one of Vladimir Putin's main enemies of the early 2000s, Boris Berezovsky. I know for sure that Putin respects Abramovich for the fact that, unlike other oligarchs, he is not the son of successful parents, but was brought up in an orphanage, and made himself out of nothing. These two features set Abramovich apart from others.

Although Vladimir Putin managed to push the rich 90s away from making decisions, no one delivered sharp blows. Since the mid-2010s, society's attitude towards wealthy people and prestigious consumption has changed. Most people think that 20 years is more than enough to solve this problem, Markov said.

The downgrade of Putin's rating is a political consequence of the fact that "Putin never managed to curtail the prestigious, socially irresponsible consumer behavior of rich people":

- In the same way, from the point of view of consumption, ordinary multimillionaires living in some Cherepovets, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar behave defiantly. They are obviously burning this money, which should go either to social needs of the poor, or to progress, social progress and help to those who need it.

Ethics teacher Aslan Gadzhikurbanov does not expect any reaction from the authorities or Abramovich:

- He and others like him did it and will do it. It has nothing to do with morality. They enjoy wealth to the extent that circumstances and social conditions permit them.

This is on the other side of good and evil, the transition to a special state of these people. Considering that millions of retirees live on a pension of 9,300 rubles, that is, 9,300 rubles, and there is a yacht that costs hundreds of millions of dollars. It's simple.

Sergey Markov says people don't like oligarchs. But they are enraged not only by oligarchic yachts or boorish consumption in the provinces. People are outraged at how the rich protect their own people, how they command the police:

- A drunken son hit a man in a car, and his father was able to smear him. This is what people may not like the most, even more than yachts. They do not like oligarchs, but people hate children of oligarchs with fierce hatred.

Georgy Ostapkovich believes that the actions of one person, although very rich, do not affect the country's business climate. However, they certainly influence the moral and political climate.