Along with the reinstatement of world economy, more and more Russians are becoming billionaires. All are managers of enormous economy corporations in the world. They might be businessmen in different fields but they share in common with huge property. Recently, RIA Novosti has consulted a list of top richest Russians. Let's come to the following list to get more information about successful businessmen.
Vladimir Potanin ($9.95 billion)
As part of division of assets, Potanin has a stake in Rosbank. Sold 20% stake in Polyus Gold to another billionaire, Suleiman Kerimov, late 2008. He has variously served as a deputy prime minister of the economy under Boris Yeltsin and as partner to George Soros in telecom monopoly Svyazinvest. He is active in philanthropy in Russia and is a supporter of the arts.
Vladimir Potanin
Alexei Mordashov ($10 billion)
He is a son of mill worker parents, Mordashov studied economics in Leningrad in mid-1980s. He was later named finance director of a steel mill. Today his Severstal is Russia's third-largest steel company. In late 2007 he presided over the opening of a new mini-mill in Mississippi, in which he is biggest investor.
Alexei Mordashov
Vagit Alekperov ($10.65)
He was born into a large family in the oil city of Baku and attended Azerbaijan's Oil & Chemistry Institute. In 1972 he started as a drill operator on the Caspian Sea. By 1990 was a deputy minister in the Soviet oil industry. In 1991 took 3 large ministry-controlled oil fields-Langepas, Urai and Kogalym (LUK)-and set up Lukoil, which was soon privatized in favor of Alekperov-controlled management.
Vagit Alekperov
Alisher Usmanov ($12.4 billion)
He is owner of Oskol Steel Mill, the Ural Steel industrial complex. In the beginning of 2005 Usmanov and his partner Vasiliy Anisimov acquired Mikhailovsky GOK (an ore mining and processing plant). In spring 2005 their attempt to annex Russia's largest ferrous metals producer, Magnitogorsky metallurgical complex, failed.
Alisher Usmanov
Oleg Deripaska ($13.8 billion)
Former metals trader survived the gangster wars in the post-Soviet aluminum industry. His holding company, Basic Element, now owns Russian Aluminum (UC Rusal), automobile manufacturer GAZ, aircraft manufacturer Aviacor and insurance company Ingosstrakh. In 2006 Rusal, SUAL and Glencore International, of Switzerland, merged their aluminum assets into the United Company Rusal, the world's largest aluminum producer.
Oleg Deripaska
Mikhail Fridman ($14.3 billion)
He founded Alfa Group in 1990s with college friends (and now fellow billionaires) German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev; it's now a diverse conglomerate with oil, retail, telecom and banking interests. In 2003 he merged his oil company, TNK, with British oil giant BP, an achievement, considering that six years prior the two parties were fighting, with protesting his methods for taking over a partly BP-owned oilfield.
Mikhail Fridman
Suleiman Kerimov $14.5 billion
Over the last year Kerimov has sold nearly all his Russian assets, including shares in Gazprom, government-owned Sberbank and a massive housing development in suburban Moscow. In December, he bought large stake in Russia's largest gold mining outfit, Polyus Gold, now his most valuable holding.
Suleiman Kerimov
Roman Abramovich $17 billion
He has a large stake in Russia's second biggest steel company, Evraz. He owns U.K. soccer team Chelsea; He has spent $1.5 billion trying to boost team but hasn't helped. In 2003 to 2004, He sold stake in Russian Aluminum to Oleg Deripaska. He sold 73% stake in Sibneft to gas titan Gazprom for $13 billion in 2005.
Roman Abramovich
Mikhail Prokhorov $17.85 billion
Bachelor billionaire is now the richest man in Russia despite a 51% drop in his net worth. He cashed out his 25% stake in Norilsk Nickel last spring, unloading the holding to fellow billionaire Oleg Deripaska. Stepped down as general director of metals outfit Norilsk two year ago after being detained on suspicions that he allegedly made prostitutes available to guests he was entertaining in the glitzy French ski resort Courchevel.
Mikhail Prokhorov
Vladimir Lisin $18.8 billion
His first job was mechanic in coal mine. In 1991, when his boss was appointed minister of metallurgy, Lisin came with him to Moscow. In 1992 he joined up with tough group of traders called Trans-World Group; they came to dominate Russia's aluminum and steel exports. He managed the factories, and when the partners went their separate ways in 2000, Lisin got majority stake in Russia's giant Novolipetsk steel mill as his share.
Vladimir Lisin
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