Eldad Tamir of the Israeli financial group Tamir Fishman was one of the first foreign investors to announce his withdrawl from a major deal in Russia following the “velvet reprivatization” interview with Oleg Shvartsman. VentureBeat has a new interview with Mr. Tamir, who although remains undeterred from doing future business in Russia, remarks that Shvartsman’s role was to initiate the deal with the venture capitalists, and that it’s “very important to stay as far away as possible from politics.”