How many oligarchs in Russia will probably be difficult for even Forbes employees to calculate: the country is large and the number of dollar millionaires in it is only increasing every year. However, in the TOP of the richest people of the Russian Federation, the same people fight for the first place from year to year. So who are they - Russian billionaires?
Russian oligarchs: photo, biography of Vladimir Potanin
In 2015, Vladimir Potanin was recognized as the richest man in Russia. Potanin made his way to the Russian oligarchs back in 2006: then the businessman became the sixth person in the country in terms of welfare. In 2007, the president of Interros Holding climbed to 4th place. Then, for several years, he lost his position in the top five richest people in the country, until in 2015 he reached first place in the Forbes ranking.
Potanin once studied at MGIMO at the faculty of international economic relations. In Soviet times, the future businessman was a member of the Komsomol and worked in the foreign trade of the USSR.
In the 90s, like many enterprising people, Potanin went into private business and founded one of the largest investment companies in Russia - Interros. A little later, Vladimir Olegovich received the post of vice president of IFC Bank and president of ONEXIM Bank. Thanks to collateral auctions in 1995, ONEXIM Bank became the owner of 51 percent of the shares of Norilsk Nickel. To date, Potanin has only a 30.3% stake in MMC, but this was enough to turn into the richest oligarch in Russia by 2015.
Mikhail Fridman
The list of Russian oligarchs invariably over the years includes the owner of the Alfa Group consortium, Mikhail Fridman. In 2015, Friedman took second place in the Forbes ranking as the richest businessman in Russia.
It all started with the fact that in the 1980s, Mr. Fridman resold scarce tickets to major Moscow theaters, as well as organized discos. Then he decided to increase his income and created the Courier cooperative, which was engaged in window cleaning. In 1989, Friedman switched to the sale of photographic materials and computer equipment, and then began to export oil. So the Alfa Group company appeared, which to this day feeds its creator.
But Friedman did not stop there and eventually joined the board of directors of Alfa Bank, invested in the mobile operator Life, Belmarket and BelEuroset. And also Friedman managed to visit the board of directors of the ORT association and the SIDANCO Oil Company.
Personal capital of Mikhail Fridman in 2015 amounted to 14.6 billion dollars.
Alisher Usmanov
The oligarchs of Russia are often engaged in charity work. In this regard, Alisher Usmanov is widely known, who for many years has supported the Russian team in rhythmic gymnastics, redeems and returns historical values to Russia, and even returns Nobel medals to their owners (the case of Jason Watson). In 2013, Usmanov even became a No. 1 philanthropist among Russian businessmen according to Forbes.
For three years (from 2012 to 2014) Usmanov held the title of the richest businessman in Russia. But in 2015, he changed first place to third: his personal fortune decreased from $ 18 billion to 14.4.
Alisher Burkhanovich began his career with the production of plastic bags. Today, the businessman is fed stakes in companies such as USM Holdings, Megafon, Mail.ru Group and DST Global, as well as UTV Holding. Since 2014, Alisher Usmanov has full control over the famous social network - VKontakte.
Victor Vekselberg
The oligarchs of Russia fall not only in the domestic ratings of influential persons, but also in foreign lists. Viktor Vekselberg, for example, was in 113th place in the TOP of the most influential and wealthiest people in the world as of 2010. In 2015, in Russia, the businessman took 4th place in terms of welfare: Vekselberg's personal assets amount to $ 14.2 billion.
The huge fortune of Viktor Feliksovich was allowed to earn by the Renova company he founded. Over time, the company grew into a large business group, which owns shares of enterprises UC Rusal, "Integrated Energy Systems", "Russian Utility Systems" and many others. Vekselberg also owns shares of some Swiss companies, for example, Oerlikon and Sulzer.
Vekselberg likes to repeat in an interview that money is not only difficult to earn, but also difficult to use. Given the stability of the entrepreneur’s income, he knows how to properly distribute his funds.
Alexey Mordashov
Alexey Mordashov, who is considered the actual owner of Severstal, in 2011 was in second place with the richest entrepreneurs in the country. However, the oligarchs of Russia pressed the businessman on the list, and in 2015 he took only fifth place with his personal capital of 13 billion dollars.
Mordashov began his career at the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant. After some time, the businessman already bought up all the shares of Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant and put all the profits from the sale of metals to the West in his pocket. To date, the entrepreneur has 79% of Severstal, 88% of Nord Gold and 100% of Power Machines.
