WSJ names person who influenced Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine

According to the Wall Street Journal sources, the billionaire and Putin have met frequently since the start of the war in February, and also talk by phone or video, according to a friend of the Kovalchuk family as well as to a former Russian intelligence official.

As Putin has long relied on an inner circle of trusted allies, the 71-year-old billionaire was the one who argued that a war could prove Russia’s strength.

Back in March 2020, when the pandemic hit, Kovalchuk quarantined and underwent regular testing to meet with Putin, who was isolating at his dachas and taking few in-person meetings, according to several people with knowledge of the relationship.

The two friends spent hours together talking about the growing conflict with the West, Russian history and their shared interests, according to the friend of the Kovalchuk family and the former Russian intelligence official.

Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the billionaire insisted that the West was weak and that the time was ripe for Russia to demonstrate its military prowess and defend its sovereignty by intervening in Ukraine.

The Wall Street Journal notes that Kovalchuk is also one of Russia's biggest media moguls, with an empire of television channels, newspapers and social media that often tout the Kremlin line.

For example, TV news channels in Kovalchuk’s National Media Group presented a calm and steady picture of motivated and highly trained reservists being called to the front lines, and they aired accusations by Russian officials that Ukraine is planning to detonate a “dirty bomb” on its own territory.

He also bought control late last year of VK Co., which runs the country’s largest domestic social-media network, VKontakte, often called the Facebook of Russia.

The authors of the article explain that Kovalchuk is motivated more by patriotic ideology than by wealth. 

He doesn’t hold a formal position in the Russian government. Yet he has deep influence over Kremlin policy and personnel, and helps supply dachas and yachts for Putin’s use, jobs and stockholdings to the president’s family and friends, according to people familiar with the deals, financial documents and anticorruption groups, WSJ says.