By Marco Hugo Barsotti MHB 
You’re listening to a new special of France Today in podcast and on Centrale Milano 1575 kHz.
“`Joint Monaco and French authorities have identified, thanks to surveillance cameras, a man who deposited a backpack loaded with bolts and metal pellets at the building entrance before fleeing towards Beausoleil, thus starting a manhunt.
Who is Vadym Iermolaiev
Born in Dnipro in 1968, Vadym Iermolaiev is one of the richest businessmen in Ukraine, with an estimated net worth of over $300 million, placing him at 23rd position in the country’s wealth ranking. His fortune comes from the Alef Group, a conglomerate active in the agro‑food, construction, building materials, real estate sectors and in the production of alcoholic beverages through Alef‑Vinal. Iermolaiev was among the protagonists of Dnipro’s urban transformation, with Alef inaugurating in 2021 the country’s largest biomass power plant. In 2019 he renounced Ukrainian citizenship to obtain Cypriot citizenship, a common choice among Eastern European oligarchs for tax and asset‑protection reasons. After the Russian invasion of 2022 he moved to Monaco, where he joined the so‑called “Monaco Battalion”, an informal group of Ukrainian billionaire refugees on the French Riviera.
Business in Crimea and ties to Russia
The figure of Iermolaiev is surrounded by controversy. After Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, his subsidiary Alef‑Vinal‑Crimea continued operating on the peninsula under Russian law, paying taxes to the Moscow tax authority. Documents cited by Ukrainian investigative authorities indicate that the branch would have paid nearly 490 million rubles to the Russian federal budget in 2021. In December 2023 the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council imposed a ten‑year sanction on Iermolaiev, freezing assets and blocking financial operations. He is also under investigation for having left the country in 2022, violating provisions that prohibit the departure of men of military age.
Suspects on motive
The motive of the attack remains uncertain. Investigators do not rule out any hypothesis: a revenge linked to business in Crimea, a settling of scores within the Ukrainian oligarchy, or an action attributable to alleged ties with Russian circles. The sophistication of the device, with metal fragments designed to maximize injuries, suggests professional planning. Iermolaiev embodies the profile of an oligarch who has tried to navigate between two fronts, maintaining economic activities in Russian‑occupied territory while presenting himself as a European entrepreneur, a particularly dangerous position in wartime.
Rachel’s Editorial – Oligarchs in Monte Carlo: the new frontier of war luxury
What a marvel: while ordinary people struggle amid the rubble of a war they never consented to, Ukrainian oligarchs find refuge under the Monte Carlo spotlights. And we, poor Europeans, keep pouring funds as if they were candy, indebting even the refugees’ children to keep that glitter of “solidarity” alive. Isn’t it a bit comic to see the children of a Ukrainian family grow up among casinos while their homeland burns?
The Iermolaiev case is the perfect plot twist for this Italian‑style drama. A man who, even after selling his Ukrainian citizenship for a Cypriot passport – the latest tax trick to não pagar nada –, finds himself the victim of a homemade device in one of the Principality’s chicest streets. Where is the logic of such a raw “retribution”? Perhaps it is the price to pay for having chosen to do business with Russia while his country defends itself against that same Russia. Or it is just another episode of that power circus where guns fire at random, but always behind a money‑reinforced door.
And then there is the story of the “manhunt” that takes place among the parks of Beausoleil like a board game. The Monegasque authorities investigate, but who are these investigations really for? If the media limit themselves to quoting the prosecutor without asking why these rich people hide in Monte Carlo, they give us another episode of “Who broke the vase?” where the vase is the future of an entire people. Their “unknown motive” is an excuse not to admit that Europe, under the veil of solidarity, has created a luxury refugee club.
In the end, what remains is a grim spectacle: while parliaments approve record budgets for the freshly arrived “refugees,” their children practice violin on a sea‑view terrace, hoping not to hear bombs any longer. Europe has made debt repayment its weapon of defense, yet the highest price is paid by those who were supposed to be protected. Meanwhile, the wounded oligarch complains about his “sabotage” while the people of Dnipro count the remaining pieces of life they have left. What a show!
Koan of the day
Monaco: “Master, why do oligarchs flee to a city where the sun shines but the shadows are gold?”
Master: “Because they believe money can warm the heart more than a trench fire, yet they forget that true warmth comes from sacrifice, not luxury.”
Monaco: “Then, Master, if sacrifice is the key, why do their families still pay the bill of a war they did not choose?”
Master: “Because the universe loves parables: anyone who buys a first‑class ticket for the escape still has to go through the tunnel of uncertainty; in the end, everyone arrives at the same station, where life pays its true price with a cynical smile.”
That’s all for now. From the Paris editorial office, I am Rachel Costa: this is Radio Nizza with Centrale Milano 1575 kHz.
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