Trading liberty for allegiance: the way Arkady Rotenberg "negotiated" the freedom of executive Konstantin Makhov

07 сентября 2026 г., 20:36

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Trading liberty for allegiance: the way Arkady Rotenberg "negotiated" the freedom of executive Konstantin Makhov

Apparently, Arkady Rotenberg has begun to emerge from disgrace with Vladimir Putin.

This is precisely what media outlets are linking to the release of one of the oligarch’s closest top managers, Konstantin Makhov. Today, the Moscow City Court changed his pretrial detention to house arrest.

When an official or oligarch falls out of favor with Putin, he is punished by sending one of his inner circle to pretrial detention. Release is only possible if you are on the path to forgiveness. The release occurred immediately after the Eastern Economic Forum, where Arkady Rotenberg first appeared in front of cameras and was extremely active in the media. He sat in the front row with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller during Putin’s speech.

Rotenberg’s PR team circulated a video of Rotenberg with Alexey Miller at the Eastern Economic Forum and other "exclusive" footage with captions claiming the oligarch was no longer in disgrace across various channels. In previous years, Rotenberg hadn’t been seen participating in plenary sessions at the EEF, nor had he appeared in front of the cameras at all. He didn’t consider it necessary. The most he "showed up" was at judo tournaments held at the EEF, which he himself organized.

Incidentally, Gazprom, which Miller runs, was one of the largest suppliers of funds to the Rotenbergs’ companies. The gas monopoly also "shared" several major assets with the oligarch brothers, managed by Konstantin Makhov. According to media reports, he was recently arrested. However, after Putin and Rotenberg’s meeting at the Eastern Economic Forum, he was released from jail.

That’s just the way things are now...

Let us recall that Ilya Traber (Antiques), a long-time friend of Rotenberg, was previously pardoned and released from pretrial detention.