LAST MINUTE | Their wealth has just melted away! Here is the rise and fall of the Russian oligarchs
It has been the 28th day since Russia launched military action against Ukraine. As the war approaches 1 month, the USA and EU countries are applying heavy economic sanctions against Russia.
However, the sanctions that Russia describes as an ‘economic war’ affect not only the country and its politicians, but also the Russian billionaires who rose after Putin.
The wealth of Russian billionaires has increased by 73 percent in the last 10 years. These billionaires, defined as ‘oligarchs’, are among the best in many fields such as oil, energy and industry. However, these billionaires, whose earnings have increased by 73 percent in 10 years, have lost 20 percent of their wealth less than a month since the start of the war.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index data, the earnings of the oligarchs, whose total wealth was 326 billion dollars just before the war declaration, melted to 259 billion dollars after the war declaration. With these figures, the wealth of Russian billionaires has fallen to the levels of 2019.
TIMCHENKO, whose wealth has melted the most: TIMCHENKO
While the Russian billionaire with the highest loss of wealth was Timchenko with 39 percent, the name with the least loss was Prokhorov with 1 percent.
Timchenko, born in 1952, started his career in 1976 by working in a state-run construction factory in Leningrad. Timchenko later took office in the Russian foreign trade ministry in Leningrad. Appointed as the deputy general manager of the oil company Kirishineftekhimexport in 1988, Timchenko founded the trading company Gunvor in 1997.
In its first financial report in the post-Putin era, Gunvor reported revenues of $43 billion. Timchenko, whose earnings increased rapidly, bought 38 percent of the petrochemical company Sibur in 2011. Timchenko, who sold his Gunvor stake to Tornqvist for an undisclosed sum in 2014, was included in a money laundering investigation by US authorities that same year.
With Russia’s initiation of the operation, Timchenko, who is often on the side of Putin, was among the first Russian oligarchs to be subjected to sanctions. Timchenko’s wealth has now melted 39 percent to $11.1 billion.
THE RICHEST RUSSIAN IN THE BLOOMBERG BILLIONARDS INDEX: YOUR CROSS
The Russian billionaire, whose loss is 21 percent, is Vladimir Potanin, who is also seen as the richest Russian according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. However, despite being the richest oligarch, Potanin’s most distinctive feature is that he is not sanctioned like the others.
Potanin, who in 1993 became the President of Onexim Bank, Russia’s largest private bank, was appointed deputy prime minister in the Yeltsin government in 1996. Billionaire, who said in 2010 that he would devote most of his fortune to charity, ended the feud between Norilsk Nickel and billionaire Oleg Deripaska in 2012; He was named CEO. In 2014, he sold ProfMedia to Gazprom-Media.
However, it is stated that despite his wealth and closeness with Putin, he is the CEO and majority shareholder of Nornickel, the world’s largest refined nickel producer, and that large-scale sanctions were not imposed on this name. According to Bloomberg, Potanin’s post-war fortune is $24.8 billion.
Least DAMAGED NAME: PROKOROV
Born in Moscow in 1965, Prokhorov graduated from the Moscow State Financial Institute in 1989.
In 1991 he met the well-connected Vladimir Potanin, and together they formed a bank in 1995 in exchange for buying a stake in metal giant Norilsk Nickel. After selling his stake in the company to Potanin in 2010, he became the owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, making history as the first non-US owner in NBA history.
What distinguishes Prokhorov from the others in that he suffered the least damage and was not subject to any sanctions is that this name is not an oligarch close to Putin. The name that founded the party in 2011 lost the presidential candidacy to Putin in 2012 and 2012. However, Prokhorov was careful to emphasize throughout the campaign that he was not against Putin, but was presented as an “alternative”.
Prokhorov, which bought 27.1 percent of Uralkali’s shares for approximately 4.9 billion dollars in 2013, sold its share in Uralkali. A year later, after the US sanctions in 2014, under Putin’s pressure, he sold 49 percent of Brooklyn Nets to billionaire Joseph Tsai for $ 3.5 billion, and in 2019, he sold 51 percent of his shares in Barclays Center to Tsai.
Since 2018, Prokhorov has focused on trying to lower his activity and profile in Russia. Against this background, Prokhorov is seen as one of the most ‘liquid’ people on the list, making it relatively difficult to locate the billionaire’s assets that could be confiscated.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Prokhorov’s post-war net worth is estimated at $13.7 billion.
POST-WAR WEALTH Melted
The only thing the billionaires have in common is the melting of their wealth after the war… According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Potanin’s wealth from 31.3 billion dollars to 24.8 billion dollars before the war, Leonid Mikhelson from 28.5 billion dollars to 21.7 billion dollars, Alexey Mordashov’s wealth from 28.5 billion dollars to 21.7 billion dollars billion dollars, Vladimir Lisin’s fortune fell from $ 27.8 billion to $ 20.7 billion, while Alisher Usmanov’s fortune fell from $ 21.3 billion to $ 17.8 billion.
The wealth of Roman Abramovich, who is in the 9th place among the Russian wealthy but is among the most talked about names, decreased from 16.6 billion dollars to 13.9 billion dollars.
However, after US President Biden, who will travel to Europe and attend NATO-G7-EU Council meetings respectively, announced that he will announce more sanctions against Russia, together with his western allies, these oligarchs’ fortunes are expected to melt further.
