Russian billionaires have lost almost $ 90 billion amid an invasion of Ukraine

By Iain Martin

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday invited some of the country’s businessmen to a meeting in the Kremlin. The meeting was attended by at least 13 billionaires: Vagit Alekperov, Pyotr Aven, Andrei Bokarev, Andrei Guriev, Mikhail Gutseriev, Suleiman Kerimov, Andrey Melnichenko, Leonid Mikhelson, Alexey Mordashov, Vadim Moshkovich, Vladimir Potanin, Dmitry Ye Pumpyansky, TASS news agency.

“What is happening is a necessary measure,” he reportedly told them. “We just have no choice but to do otherwise.”

None of the billionaires has apparently commented, some are probably too scared of Putin to speak out against the invasion. But they are not invulnerable.

The attack on Ukraine has not only wreaked havoc on Ukraine, but has destabilized markets around the world and damaged the fortunes of even its closest allies. Tens of billions of dollars have disappeared from the fortunes of the elite Russian billionaires, as the country’s stock market and the ruble plummetedafter President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Some 116 billionaires in Russia have lost nearly $ 90 billion since Feb. 16, according to Forbes. Of that, about $ 39 billion disappeared on Thursday, after the Russian Moex index closed down 33% and the ruble fell to a record low against the dollar. The threat of sanctions that extend beyond the small circle of billionaire oligarchs and businesses already targeted by the US, UK and European Union could further hurt the fortunes of Russia’s richest people.

At least five of the Kremlin billionaires on Thursday – Alekperov, Mikhelson, Mordashov, Potanin and Kerimov – were among the biggest losers of the day. In all, at least 11 Russian billionaires lost $ 1 billion or more each Thursday.

Alekperov, a former Caspian oil rig worker and former Soviet oil minister who founded Lukoil, Russia’s largest independent oil producer, was the biggest loser. It saw $ 3.8 billion, or about 15.4% of its estimated $ 21.6 billion, disappear as Russian oil and gas stocks plunged. Shares of Lukoil, which are listed in London and Moscow, have fallen more than 30% since the start of military preparations for the invasion.

Lukoil had been targeted by the United States along with other Russian energy companies, such as the state-owned Rosneft, in 2014 with economic and technological sanctions over Russia’s occupation of Crimea and could be targeted again by Washington, Brussels and of London.

Billionaire Gennady Timchenko, who has been the target of British sanctions this week, was also among those whose fortunes suffered the most. Timchenko, who owns shares in various Russian companies, including gas company Novatek and Sibur, saw about $ 1.7 billion being wiped out of his fortune.

Timchenko, whose fortune still stands at more than $ 21 billion, was named as a member of Putin’s “close circle” in sanctions imposed by the US Treasury Department following the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014. These sanctions led Timchenko, who claims to have met Putin in the early 1990s, to sell 43% of his stake in Gunvor, the world’s fourth-largest oil trading group. The United States has claimed that Putin himself had invested in Gunvor and may have had access to the group’s funds. Gunvor has disputed this claim.

The British government earlier this week also imposed sanctions on three other Russians, including Putin’s ex-boyfriend (and former billionaire) Kirill Shamalov. Following the Russian strikes in Ukraine, he also announced the freezing of assets of Russian banks and the ban on Russian nationals having more than $ 66,000 (50 50,000) in a bank account in the United Kingdom.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also reportedly pressured Western leaders to go further and exclude Russia from the international payment system SWIFT, one of the main pipelines for international financing and banking. Czech President Milos Zeman, once one of Putin’s most ardent supporters in Europe, also called for Russia to be cut off from SWIFT for a “crime against peace”, despite hesitations from some European leaders about the economic implications for all parts of the exclusion of Russian companies and energy companies from the payment system.

British opposition lawmakers have called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to go even further and seize the assets of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. The billionaire owner of the Premier League football team Chelsea FC, who made his fortune in the Russian oil industry after the fall of the Soviet Union, has been repeatedly embroiled in long-running diplomatic tensions between London and Moscow.

“We have other people on our list who we are ready to impose sanctions on,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Tras told LBC Radio on Wednesday when asked if Abramovich was a target for sanctions. “No one has left the table.”

Abramovich, who was stripped of $ 1 billion in assets this week, reportedly does not have a British visa, as the businessman’s visa expired in 2018, but he was able to visit his football team thanks to the newly acquired Israeli Portuguese nationalities. Any move by the British government to own his favorite football team could be threatened by his $ 2 billion loan to Chelsea.

The biggest lost Russian billionaires

Vagit Alekperov

Losses $3.8 billion or 15.4%

A former Caspian oil rig worker and former Soviet oil minister, he is chairman of Russia’s largest independent oil company, Lukoil.

Alexey Mordashov

Losses $3.3 billion or 11.3%

Majority shareholder in the steel company Severstal, which he managed for 19 years as CEO.

Suleiman Kerimov

Losses $2.6 billion or 18.2%

Kerimov made a career investing in troubled companies in Russia. Most of his fortune now comes from his stake in Russia’s largest gold producer, Polyus.

Vladimir Lisin

Losses $2.5 billion or 8.3%

President of the NLMK group, a leading manufacturer of steel products.

Oleg Tinkov

Losses $2 billion or 52.2%

The founder of the Russian bank, Tinkoff, was convicted last year of submitting a false tax return and agreed to pay more than half a billion to the US government.

Vladimir Potanin

Losses $1.9 billion or 7%

He was described as a close associate of the Russian president by the US Treasury Department in 2018 and most of his fortune comes from mining giant Norilsk Nickel.

Leonid Mikhelson

Losses $1.7 billion or 6.4%

Major shareholder of the gas company Novatek.

Gennady Timchenko

Losses $ 1.7 billion, or 7.2%

Timchenko was hit by sanctions on Tuesday following Putin’s deployment in two parts of eastern Ukraine.

Leonid Fedun

Losses of $ 1.2 billion or 12.8%

The former soldier is Alekperov’s right hand man in Lukoil.

Mikhail Shelkov

Losses $ 1.1 billion or 24.6%

Former head of state-owned investment firm Rostec, which controls military contractors in Russia, now owns most of his fortune from VSMPO-AVISMA, the world’s largest titanium producer for the aerospace industry.

Roman Abramovich

You lose $ 1 billion.

British opposition lawmakers have called for the seizure of Abramovich’s assets, including the Chelsea football team. This will not be so easy.