Former Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais, who resigned and fled Russia in March in opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, reportedly arrived in Israel on Wednesday.
Ostorozhno Novosti, a Telegram news channel run by Ksenia Sobchak who recently moved to Israel, reported that Chubais was spotted arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport on Wednesday with his wife, Avdotya Smirnova. Chubais' mother was Jewish.
The Telegram post included photos showing a man suspected of being Chubais.
On Thursday, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the Kremlin has "neither the ability nor the desire to follow the fate of Anatoly Chubais," according to TASS. "It is known that he is abroad. He does not work for us," said Peskov.
TASS reported in late April that Chubais was in Italy after traveling via Turkey and did not plan to return to Russia to testify in the case of theft of property from him worth 70 million rubles.
On March 25, Putin signed a decree dismissing Chubais from his post as climate envoy. Chubais was not considered a civil servant and was not part of the staff of the Kremlin administration.
Bloomberg reported in March that Chubais left in opposition to Putin's invasion of Ukraine, citing two people familiar with the matter. Chubais at the time was the highest-level official to oppose the Kremlin on the invasion.
Alexei Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh rejected reports that Chubais had left in opposition to the invasion of Ukraine, saying in a tweet that Chubais left Russia "only out of fear for his own skin and his own money."
Chubai was instrumental in rapidly privatizing Russia's economy in the 1990s and served as deputy prime minister for economic and financial policy from 1994 to 1996.