The Kremlin on Friday denied reports that President Vladimir Putin had asked leading businessmen to donate money to stabilize Russia's finances as it presses on with the war in Ukraine.
The reports, citing unnamed sources, were published by independent Russian outlet The Bell and by the Financial Times after Putin held a closed-door meeting with business leaders on Thursday.
"It's not true that Putin made such a request," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
However, he said a participant at the meeting had said he wanted to donate a "very large sum of money" to the state.
This person had said that most of the businessmen present had started up in the 1990s and the start of their business was linked to the state one way or another, so many of them considered it their duty to contribute, Peskov said. He did not name the individual involved.
"This was absolutely his initiative, and not President Putin's. Although, of course, the head of state welcomed such an initiative," Peskov added.
He said it was not true that the money was for the war.
The Bell, reporting on the meeting, said Putin had discussed military funding and said that Russia would fight on until it captured the remaining areas of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region not under its control.
The Bell said billionaire Suleiman Kerimov had pledged at the meeting to donate 100 billion roubles ($1.23 billion). Reuters was not immediately able to reach Kerimov for comment.
Russia is running a budget deficit and facing an economic slowdown as the war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year,drags on. However, it is set to receive a major windfall from a spike in oil prices since the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28.
Sources told Reuters earlier this month that the government was preparing a possible 10% cut to all "non-sensitive" spending in this year's budget, but the final decision will hinge on the sustainability of the oil price rise.
($1 = 81.2000 roubles)
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