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Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin is worth an estimated $22 billion, making him the richest man in Russia.
The 58-year-old businessman made his fortune in the nickel industry after spearheading Russia’s controversial “loans-for-shares” program. Potanin is the president of Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of refined nickel.
Potanin has owned at least three luxury yachts and spent $10 million on his daughter’s wedding on the French Riviera. He’s also become known as a philanthropist, having joined The Giving Pledge, the charity organization founded by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett, and promised to donate most of his fortune to charity rather than pass it on to his children.
The Russian billionaire has close ties to President Vladimir Putin – in fact, the pair are ice hockey buddies – and Potanin was named on the infamous “Putin list” of prominent Russian political figures and oligarchs.
Here’s a look at the life and wealth of Vladimir Potanin, the richest man in Russia and the 37th-richest person in the world.
The 58-year-old businessman is the president of Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of refined nickel.
Norilsk Nickel is responsible for almost 22% of the world’s high-grade nickel production and about 40% of its palladium.
Potanin has made more than $4 billion in dividends from the company as of January 2018, according to Bloomberg.
He reportedly owns office spaces, hotel property in Moscow, land in central Russia, and a country club in the Moscow region.
In 1990, Potanin formed Interros Foreign Trade Association, a conglomerate that now holds stakes in industries including metals and mining, real estate, sports and tourism, and pharmaceuticals.
When he was 30, Potanin met Mikhail Prokhorov, who would become his future business partner. The pair founded the International Company for Finance & Investments and then Onexim Bank, which became Russia’s largest private bank at the time.
Potanin became president of the bank in 1992, at age 32.
While working at the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Potanin masterminded Russia’s “loans-for-shares” programs, where wealthy entrepreneurs and banks loaned money to the Russian government in the 1990s in exchange for equity in the country’s natural resource companies.
It was through this program that Potanin acquired Norilsk Nickel, which would go on to make him the richest man in Russia.
In fact, the loans-for-shares program created many of today’s wealthiest Russian oligarchs such as Roman Abramovic, who’s worth about $16 billion today and also holds shares in Norilsk Nickel.
He’s been photographed at various events with Putin dating back to at least 2000.
The list, released in early 2018, named individuals and companies that the administration was deciding whether or not to sanction with legislation meant to punish Russia for interfering in the 2016 US presidential election, as well as its annexation of Crimea, military operations in eastern Ukraine, and human rights violations, CNN reported.
Medvedev was president from 2008 to 2012 and then supported Vladimir Putin in his re-election campaign. Putin named Medvedev prime minister soon after he was sworn in as president.
He built a ski resort in Sochi with nearly 50 miles of trails, a freestyle ski center, a snowboard park, one of the two Olympic Villages, and the Russian Olympic University, Forbes reported.
Anastasia was first listed for 125 million euros, or about $140 million, in 2012 when Potanin was delivered his new yacht, Nirvana.
According to Forbes, Anastasia and Nirvana were among a series of three yachts that Potanin had built at Oceanco in the Netherlands.
The boat has six decks which are connected by a main stairwell as well as a glass elevator.
Potanin put the Nirvana up for sale around the same time he first put Anastasia on the market in 2012, but it’s unclear whether the billionaire has sold Nirvana.
In 2018, a new 289-foot yacht called Barbara was delivered to Potanin, according to Yacht Harbour.
When asked who was the better player, Potanin simply said, “I am younger.”
Potanina told Business Insider in a 2014 interview that she was seeking half of Potanin’s $15 billion fortune at the time of their divorce.
The Russian Legal Information Agency later reported that Potanina received $6.8 million for her share of the luxury apartment the couple shared in Moscow (which Potanin kept) and three plots of land in the Moscow region.
The couple reportedly has a child together.
She married a ballroom dance teacher in the South of France in 2018. Potanin reportedly spent $10 million on her wedding, which took place at a luxury hotel on the French Riviera. The billionaire arranged transfers on private jets and paid for guests to stay at the five-star Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes.
Potanin said in 2010 that he would donate most of his fortune to charity instead of giving it to his five children. Part of his motive was to “help my children avoid the pressure of billions,” he said.
He’s also a trustee of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York.
And in 2016, he donated 250 works of Russian and Soviet art to the Pompidou Center in Paris, which resulted in him being awarded the French Legion of Honor the next year.
“I genuinely believe that wealth should work for public good and, therefore, I am trying to make my own contribution toward a better world, especially toward a better future for my own country, Russia,” Potanin wrote on The Giving Pledge’s website.
Some of Russia’s top billionaires lost an estimated $16 billion on that day.
