Alexey Mordashov: Severstal’s Owner, the TUI and Nordgold Transfers and the Sanctions

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Sanctions status — checked 18 October 2026

Listed by: US (OFAC SDN) · UK (OFSI) · EU

This person appears on the sanctions lists named above. Other countries are covered in the sanctions section below. Date of birth used for identification: 1965-09-26. 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 Alexey Mordashov and family’s net worth at $36.9 billion as of 18 October 2026 (Forbes profile). Estimates are revised continuously and Forbes and Bloomberg frequently disagree.

Alexey Mordashov is the majority owner of Severstal, one of Russia’s largest steel producers, and the head of the investment group Severgroup. He rose from planning economist to chief executive at the Cherepovets steel mill, where his parents had worked, and built a group that has included the gold miner Nordgold, a large stake in the travel company TUI and the retailer Lenta. The European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand have sanctioned him since 2022, and the EU General Court has dismissed his challenge.

  • Born: 26 September 1965 in Cherepovets, Vologda region (UK sanctions list, Canada Gazette)
  • Education: Leningrad Institute of Economics and Engineering; MBA from Northumbria University
  • Known for: chief executive of Severstal (1996–2015), majority shareholder of Severstal and chairman of Severgroup
  • Sanctions as of October 2026: European Union (since 28 February 2022), Switzerland (since 4 March 2022), Australia (since 13 March 2022), United Kingdom (since 15 March 2022), New Zealand (since 5 April 2022), Poland (entry ban since 26 April 2022), United States (since 2 June 2022), Canada (since 23 February 2023)

Early life and Severstal

Mordashov was born on 26 September 1965 in Cherepovets, a steel town in the Vologda region, the son of workers at the local steel mill (UK sanctions list, Forbes, City AM). He studied at the Leningrad Institute of Economics and Engineering in the 1980s and later completed an MBA at Northumbria University in Newcastle (Forbes, City AM).

In 1988 he started work as a planning economist at the Cherepovets steel mill and in 1992 became its finance director (City AM). The mill was registered as an open joint-stock company and privatised on 24 September 1993 (Severstal annual report 2025). According to Forbes, when the plant’s elderly director told him to buy up shares to keep them from an outsider, Mordashov kept most of them for himself (Forbes). He became chief executive in 1996 and ran the company for 19 years; in 2015 he stepped down as chief executive and stood for election to the company’s board (Forbes, Fomag, 27 April 2015).

Severstal’s annual report for 2025 names him as its main shareholder, with indirect control of 77.03 percent of the shares at the end of 2025 (Severstal annual report 2025). Since 2023 the company no longer discloses who sits on its board, citing a Russian government decree (Severstal annual report 2025). In June 2026 Russian media still described him as chairman of the board; at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum he said that Severstal had cut its investment programme for 2026 by 24 percent because demand for steel had fallen (Fontanka, 5 June 2026, The Moscow Times, 5 June 2026).

Severgroup, TUI and Nordgold

When the EU listed him in 2022, it described him as chairman of Severstal and of Severgroup, the holding company of his business group (EU Implementing Regulation 2022/336). In 2019 Severgroup bought 41.9 percent of the hypermarket chain Lenta and later raised its stake to nearly 80 percent; in February 2022 it completed the purchase of the online grocer Utkonos (Interfax, 14 February 2025). The EU also named Severgroup as the owner of the engineering company Power Machines and as a shareholder in Bank Rossiya and the National Media Group (EU Implementing Regulation 2022/336, Polish interior ministry).

Before the sanctions he held about a third of the travel group TUI. On 28 February 2022, the day the EU listed him, his companies sold their shares in Unifirm, which held most of the TUI stake, to Ondero Limited. TUI later reported that Ondero is controlled by Marina Mordashova, whom Interfax and the ICIJ describe as the mother of his children. He left TUI’s supervisory board on 2 March 2022 (TUI, 2 March 2022, TUI, 4 March 2022, TUI, 18 March 2022). Germany’s economy ministry opened a review of the transfer, and in May 2023 TUI withdrew its notice naming Marina Mordashova because the transaction “remains provisionally invalid” under German foreign trade law. TUI’s new notice attributed 10.87 percent of the voting rights to Alexey Mordashov as of 19 April 2023 (TUI voting rights notices, 16 May 2023, second notice).

Also on 28 February 2022, Marina Mordashova became the controlling person of the gold miner Nordgold, and Mordashov left its board on 1 March 2022 (Nordgold, 1 March 2022, Bloomberg via Steel Times International, Interfax, 7 March 2022). Leaked records from the Pandora Papers showed that she had controlled Ondero’s parent company since 2018 (ICIJ, 22 March 2022). The EU later listed her too, stating that Mordashov had transferred his TUI and Nordgold shares, “together worth more than 1.5 billion euros”, to her through offshore companies (EU Implementing Regulation 2022/878). Nordgold itself is sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom, and since July 2026 the EU has listed its Russian management company (Federal Register, UK sanctions list).

Sanctions

CountryListedStatus in October 2026
European Union28 February 2022Listed; the measures run until 22 September 2029
Switzerland4 March 2022Listed
Australia13 March 2022Listed (designation instrument of 13 March 2022)
United Kingdom15 March 2022Listed (UK sanctions list, RUS0770): asset freeze, travel ban, trust services sanctions, director disqualification
New Zealand5 April 2022Listed (Russia Sanctions Register)
Poland26 April 2022Entry ban
United States2 June 2022Listed (OFAC SDN list)
Canada23 February 2023Listed (Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations, item 1111)

The European Union listed Mordashov on 28 February 2022. Its reasons said that he “is benefiting from his links with Russian decision-makers” and pointed to Severgroup’s stakes in Bank Rossiya and the National Media Group and its ownership of Power Machines, which the EU said had sold wind turbines to occupied Crimea (EU Implementing Regulation 2022/336, The Globe and Mail, 19 December 2022). His entry was not changed at the EU review of 22 September 2026, which extended the measures until 22 September 2029 (Council Decision 2026/2161). Switzerland, which listed him on 4 March 2022, revised its reasons in February 2026. They now say that his invitation to a meeting of business leaders with Vladimir Putin on 24 February 2022 “shows that he is a member of the closest circle” of the president (Swiss sanctions list). A spokesperson for Mordashov told the ICIJ in 2022 that he “has never been involved in politics and has never had any relationships with the Russian authorities” (ICIJ). After the EU listing he said: “I have absolutely nothing to do with the current geopolitical tensions and I don’t understand why the EU has imposed sanctions on me” (AFP via The Local, 5 March 2022).

The United Kingdom designated him on 15 March 2022 as chairman and majority shareholder of “Russia’s fourth-largest steel producer by tonnage” (UK sanctions list, UK government, 15 March 2022). It added Severstal in May 2023 and Marina Mordashova and Nordgold in November 2023. On 2 June 2022 the US State Department sanctioned Mordashov, whom the Treasury’s announcement described as “the leader of Severgroup and one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires”, together with Marina Mordashova, his sons Kirill and Nikita, and Severstal, Nordgold and other companies (US Treasury, 2 June 2022, Federal Register, 5 December 2022). Australia listed him on 13 March 2022 and New Zealand on 5 April 2022 (Australian designation instrument, New Zealand sanctions register). Poland barred him from entering the country on 26 April 2022 (Polish interior ministry). Canada listed him, Marina Mordashova and his sons Ilya, Kirill and Nikita in February 2023 (Canada Gazette, SOR/2023-32). Ukraine’s sanctions decision of 19 October 2022 lists his sons but not him (annex to Decree 727/2022).

Court cases and seized assets

In March 2022 Italian police seized the 64-metre yacht Lady M in the port of Imperia; the Italian finance ministry identified Mordashov as its owner (Dockwalk, 7 March 2022, AFP via The Local). The yacht was built in 2013 by the American shipyard Palmer Johnson (Boat International, 6 March 2022). According to Reuters, a regional court in Lazio rejected a request by the company that formally owns the yacht to lift the freeze, saying that Mordashov was its ultimate owner (Reuters via Cyprus Mail, 1 July 2022). Italy also froze a villa near Olbia in Sardinia attributed to him (EFE via Infobae, 18 March 2022, Reuters via The Business Standard).

We checked the US, UK, Canadian and Polish lists on 11 October 2026, the Swiss list of 5 October 2026 and the EU list as of its review of 22 September 2026. We found no record of a criminal investigation against Mordashov.

About this profile

This profile was rewritten in October 2026. The 2022 version called Mordashov one of the “Red Oligarchs” associated with Putin’s inner circle; we found no source for that label. It said that he was the largest shareholder of VTB, controlled the insurer SOGAZ and held stakes in RT and Vedomosti; the Russian state is VTB’s main shareholder, Vedomosti was sold to other owners in 2020, and we found no source linking him to SOGAZ or RT. It said that he bought Lady M in 2008 from Roman Abramovich and described it as an 86-metre yacht; Lady M is a 64-metre yacht built in 2013. It also claimed that he planned to sell stakes in ArcelorMittal and Outokumpu, owned homes in Knightsbridge, Central Park and Palm Beach, set up a Mordashov Foundation in 2010 and was sued over child support. We found no source for any of these statements. They have been removed. The net worth figure in the box at the top of this page comes from Forbes and carries its date.

Sources

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