Russia's Deripaska under fire for rare anti-war comments

Reuters: MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska came under attack from supporters of the war in Ukraine on Friday after making a rare anti-war statement in which he described the conflict as "mad" and called for a ceasefire without pre-conditions.

Deripaska made the comment in an interview with Nikkei Asia in Japan this week on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council meeting, where he officially represented Russia.

Nikkei Asia said he criticised his country's defence spending and called for an "immediate, unconditional ceasefire" in Ukraine, saying: "If you want to stop the war, first you need to stop the fire."

The reported comments marked the strongest criticism of the war by any powerful businessman still remaining in Russia since the start of the conflict in February 2022.

"Previously, Deripaska's position on the special military operation was ambiguous. Now he has made his stance clear. He is on the other side," said philosopher Alexander Dugin, widely seen as one of the key ideologists of the war.

"This is a stab in the back to our forces, and assistance to the Ukrainian army terrorists who have invaded the Kursk region," Dugin added in a statement posted on his Telegram channel.

Representatives for Deripaska did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Deripaska branched out into metals trading as the Soviet Union crumbled, making a fortune by buying up stakes in aluminum factories. Forbes ranked his fortune in 2024 at $2.8 billion.

In his latest reported comments he went further than in 2022, when he called for peace in Ukraine and cast the war as a tragedy for both the Russian and Ukrainian people.

Deripaska has been under sanctions by the United States since 2018 and has tried to legally challenge them in U.S. courts. He has been under European Union and British sanctions since 2022. He called sanctions "a 19th-century instrument" and said they were inefficient.