DENVER — Former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens resigned as the director of a bank in Moscow after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
“It’s unbelievable, and it’s unbelievably sad for Ukraine,” Owens told 9Wants to Know. “They’re standing up for all of us. And I said when I resigned from the board that I stand with my country and I stand with Ukraine.”
In 2013, Owens was named chairman of the supervisory board for the Credit Bank of Moscow.
“I couldn’t stay involved in Russia after what had happened,” Owens said.
Owens first became fascinated with Russia as a boy.
“I was a child of the Cold War and they were our enemy – and apparently still are,” he said. “In my day and in my Catholic school, we would start every Mass with praying for the victims behind the Iron Curtain, because the Catholic Church, like so many other churches, was repressed by the Soviets.”
He said he was as fascinated with Russia as he would have been with Nazi Germany if he’d been a child in the 1940s.
Owens has traveled to Russia many times – his Facebook page includes numerous pictures from his visits – and his work with the bank was aimed at showing “how a normal company would operate.”
“It's a Western-oriented bank,” he said. “It had a majority of Western directors. It had investors such as the World Bank and the European Bank of Development. And in the days when people still thought Russia could be reformed, it was one of the vehicles to bring Western-style business to Russia.
“it was a good bank that had a lot to show Russia. But we failed and our country failed, but it was worth the effort.”
That ended when he resigned on Sunday after spending a couple of days contacting the other directors to let them know he was stepping down.
Owens had harsh words for Putin.
“This is probably the greatest unforced error by a leader since Hitler invaded Russia in 1941 and then declared war on the United States,” he said. “Putin didn’t have to do this, he can’t gain from it, and all he’s doing is correctly uniting the West against him.”
He also had harsh words for former President Donald Trump, who praised the invasion as a “smart” move and professed his admiration for Putin.
“Disgust,” Owens said when asked for his reaction. “I thought that before the invasion. And President Trump had nice things to say about Mr. Putin before, as well. It’s time for all Americans to unite behind our country and behind Ukraine – and there’s nothing admirable about Vladimir Putin."
He also said he believes sanctions imposed by President Joe Biden in concert with other Western leaders have been “incredibly effective.”
“Russia is reeling economically in the last few days,” Owens said. “The ruble has gone from 70 to perhaps 130 today to a dollar. That means it’s diminished in value by perhaps 50%. The stock market hasn’t opened in the last two days in Russia because they're afraid of when they open where the stocks will fall to. Russia is paying a heavy price for this aggression, and it deserves to.”
But the toll on the Russian economy is only part of the fallout from the invasion, he said.
“So many Ukrainians are going to pay with their lives and also some innocent Russians. I’m sure not all of those Russian soldiers know what they’re doing or agree with what they’re doing,” he said. “But their mothers are still going to be weeping at their graves.”
Contact 9Wants to Know investigator Kevin Vaughan with tips about this or any story: kevin.vaughan@9news.com or 303-871-1862.
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