Airat Shaimiev: Head of Tatavtodor, Former TAIF Co-Owner and the Sanctions

/ Oligarch Profiles / By
Oil pumpjacks in the snow near Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan

Photo: Fatih Renkligil, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sanctions status — checked 18 October 2026

Listed by: UK (OFSI)

This person appears on the sanctions lists named above. Other countries are covered in the sanctions section below. Date of birth used for identification: 1962-03-07. Checked against the OFAC SDN list, the UK OFSI consolidated list and the EU consolidated list. Sanctions lists change without notice — verify against the primary source before relying on this.

Current figure: Forbes puts Airat Shaimiev’s net worth at $1.9 billion as of 18 October 2026 (Forbes profile). Estimates are revised continuously and Forbes and Bloomberg frequently disagree.

Airat Shaimiev is a businessman from Tatarstan and the elder son of Mintimer Shaimiev, the republic’s first president. Since 2008 he has run Tatavtodor, the state-owned road building company of Tatarstan. Until 2021 he was one of the owners of the TAIF group, whose refining and petrochemical business was merged into Sibur that year. We found no record of a political office or party membership. The United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada have sanctioned him, while the United States and the European Union have not.

  • Born: 7 March 1962 in Muslyumovo, Tatar ASSR (Realnoe Vremya, UK sanctions notice, 2022)
  • Education: Kazan branch of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute
  • Known for: general director of Tatavtodor (since 2008), former co-owner of TAIF, shareholder in Sibur
  • Family: son of Mintimer Shaimiev, president of Tatarstan from 1991 to 2010; brother of Radik Shaimiev
  • Sanctions as of October 2026: United Kingdom (since 2 November 2022), Ukraine (since 19 October 2022), New Zealand (since 22 November 2022), Canada (since 13 June 2025), Australia (since 26 June 2025). Not listed by the United States, the European Union or Poland.

Early life and family

Shaimiev was born on 7 March 1962 in the village of Muslyumovo in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Realnoe Vremya, Tatar-inform). The British sanctions notice gives the same date and place (UK sanctions notice, 2 November 2022). Canada’s official gazette and New Zealand’s sanctions register give 6 March 1962 instead (Canada Gazette). He graduated from the Kazan branch of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (Realnoe Vremya, Business Online).

He is the elder son of Mintimer Shaimiev, who was president of Tatarstan from 1991 to 2010, and the elder brother of Radik Shaimiev (Kommersant, 20 April 2024, Lenta.ru). Forbes gives Kazan as his place of residence (Forbes).

Tatavtodor and the road sector

From 1992 to 1996 Shaimiev was director of a production company called Ostaz. From 1996 to 2008 he was general director of Dorozhny Servis RT, a road services company of the republic (Business Online, Tatar-inform). A decree of the Tatarstan government of 29 December 2007 merged that company with Tatavtodor, and since 2008 he has been general director of the combined company (Business Online). The Russian company register lists him in that post since 8 February 2008 (company register data via Checko).

Tatavtodor builds, repairs and maintains the main highways of Tatarstan (Tatavtodor, Realnoe Vremya). Kommersant, Business Online and Forbes all describe it as a state-owned company (Kommersant, 2024, Business Online, 18 July 2025, Forbes). He was still in charge of it in April 2026 (AIF Kazan, 23 April 2026, 116.ru, 23 April 2026).

TAIF and Sibur

TAIF was registered in August 1995. Its founders were the Republic of Tatarstan and the US company NKS Trading (TAIF, Realnoe Vremya, 17 September 2021). Until 2021 the group included the TAIF-NK refinery, the petrochemical producers Kazanorgsintez and Nizhnekamskneftekhim and the power company TGK-16 (Kommersant, 2024). According to court documents reported by Interfax and Kommersant, Airat Shaimiev held 11.45 percent of TAIF at the end of 2014 (Interfax, 24 April 2021, Kommersant, 23 April 2021). Kommersant reported that the brothers’ stakes had grown since then (Kommersant, 23 April 2021).

In 2021 the petrochemical company Sibur took over TAIF. The owners of TAIF exchanged 50 percent plus one share of the company for a 15 percent stake in Sibur (Sibur via Hydrocarbon Processing, 24 September 2021). Sibur Holding received all of TAIF’s shares on 4 October 2021, and the former owners together received 15 percent of Sibur Holding (Kommersant, 27 December 2021). In 2024 Kommersant wrote that none of the former TAIF owners held more than 5 percent of Sibur Holding (Kommersant, 2024). Forbes still counted him among Sibur’s shareholders in 2026 (Forbes, AIF Kazan, 2026). The former TAIF company was renamed Sibur-RT in 2022 (TAdviser).

Together with his son Timur he also owns MNKT, a small oil producer in Tatarstan. According to Business Online, Timur held 80 percent and Airat 20 percent in July 2025 (Kommersant, 2024, Business Online, 18 July 2025). In November 2022 Shaimiev received the Order of Honour, a Russian state award, “for labour achievements and many years of conscientious work” (Tatar-inform, 14 November 2022, Idel.Realii, 7 August 2023).

Sanctions

CountryListedStatus in October 2026
Ukraine19 October 2022Listed (Decree 727/2022, ten years)
United Kingdom2 November 2022Listed (UK sanctions list, RUS1657): asset freeze, travel ban, trust services and transport sanctions, director disqualification
New Zealand22 November 2022Listed (Russia Sanctions Register)
Canada13 June 2025Listed (Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations, item 1492)
Australia26 June 2025Listed (Australian consolidated list)
United States–Not on the OFAC SDN list
European Union–Not on the EU consolidated list
Poland–Not on Poland’s national sanctions list

Ukraine was the first country to sanction him. He and his son Timur are on the annex to a decision of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council of 19 October 2022, which Decree 727/2022 put into force for ten years (annex to Decree 727/2022, Verkhovna Rada).

The United Kingdom designated him on 2 November 2022. The formal reason on the British list is his work as director of OAO Tatavtodor, which the list calls “a Government of Russia-affiliated entity which is carrying on business in sectors of strategic significance to the Government of Russia, namely the Russian construction and transport sectors” (UK sanctions list). Russian media describe Tatavtodor as state-owned, and it was formed by a decree of the Tatarstan government. In its press release the British government named him as one of four businessmen “who have enabled Putin to mobilise Russian industries to support his military effort” (UK government, 2 November 2022, RFE/RL). A director disqualification sanction was added on 9 April 2025 (UK sanctions list).

New Zealand listed him on 22 November 2022 as a person “of strategic or economic significance to Russia” (New Zealand sanctions register). Canada added him, his father Mintimer, his brother Radik and his son Timur to its list on 13 June 2025, without stating individual reasons (Canada Gazette, SOR/2025-141, SOR/2025-142, Kommersant, 18 June 2025). In June 2025 Russian media, citing the state news agency TASS, reported that Australia had also listed him (Kommersant, 26 June 2025). The Australian instrument is dated 25 June 2025 and took effect the next day; Australia’s consolidated list of 16 October 2026 still includes him (Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (No. 3) Instrument 2025, Australian Sanctions Consolidated List, 16 October 2026).

We checked the US, UK, Canadian and Polish lists on 11 October 2026, Australia’s consolidated list of 16 October 2026 and the EU list as of its review of 22 September 2026. Neither the United States, the European Union nor Poland lists him. We found no record of a criminal investigation or a court case against Shaimiev.

About this profile

This profile was rewritten in October 2026. The 2022 version said that Shaimiev had a monopoly on Russia’s coal and oil industry, owned stakes in aluminium and gas companies, was increasingly involved in politics and was one of the most powerful men in the country. We found no source for any of these statements, and his career has been in road building, not in oil and gas. It also said that he co-founded TAIF in 1993; the company was registered in 1995 by the Republic of Tatarstan and NKS Trading. It gave his father’s term as 1991 to 2001 instead of 1991 to 2010. Statements about Vladimir Putin and his circle in the old text referred to other businessmen, not to Shaimiev. These passages have been removed. The net worth figure in the box at the top of this page comes from Forbes and carries its date.

Sources

Articles You Might Enjoy Reading

Radik Shaimiev: Russian Oligarch

Who Are The Russian Oligarchs Sanctioned?

Russian Oligarchs in Canada