Oligarch Profiles

Andrey Guryev, born in 1960, is the founder and main beneficial owner of the Russian fertiliser producer PhosAgro. He represented the Murmansk region in Russia’s Federation Council from 2001 to 2013 and was deputy chairman of PhosAgro’s board from 2013 until March 2022. He should not be confused with his son of the same name,

Anatoly Lomakin is a Russian businessman who made his fortune in the potash fertilizer trade. In 1992 he founded the International Potash Company (MKK), which for a time handled sales for Uralkali, Silvinit and Belaruskali. Together with a partner he was a main owner of the potash producer Silvinit until 2010, when they sold their

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

Alexander Svetakov is the founder and board chairman of the Moscow investment group Absolut, which today builds mainly housing on land in and around New Moscow. He started in 1990 with an electronics trading business and was the majority owner of Absolut Bank, which he and his partners sold to Belgium’s KBC in 2007. He

Vladimir Lisin is a Russian metallurgical engineer who has chaired the board of the steelmaker NLMK (Novolipetsk Steel) since 1998 and is its main shareholder. He also owns the transport holding Universal Cargo Logistics and was president of the International Shooting Sport Federation from 2018 to 2022. Ukraine, Australia and Canada have sanctioned him; the

Viktor Rashnikov is the majority owner and board chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK), one of Russia’s largest steelmakers. He joined the plant as a repair-shop fitter in 1967, became its general director in 1997 and has chaired its board of directors since 2005. In 2022 he was sanctioned by the United Kingdom,

Suleiman Kerimov is a Russian investor and politician who has represented Dagestan in the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, since 2008. He made his fortune through the oil trader Nafta Moskva and through large stakes in Gazprom, Sberbank, Polymetal, Uralkali and the gold miner Polyus. In 2017 he was arrested in France

Sergey Chemezov has been chief executive of Rostec, Russia’s state corporation for defence and industrial technology, since it was created in 2007. He met Vladimir Putin in Dresden in the 1980s, when both were stationed in East Germany, and the US Treasury has called him a “trusted ally” of the president. Before Rostec he ran

Oleg Tinkov is a Russian-born businessman who founded Tinkoff Credit Systems, later Tinkoff Bank, one of Russia’s first branchless banks. In April 2022, days after he condemned the war against Ukraine on Instagram, his family trusts sold their 35 percent stake in the bank’s holding company to Vladimir Potanin’s Interros. The United Kingdom and Australia

Mikhail Prokhorov is a Russian businessman who made his fortune in banking and as chief executive of Norilsk Nickel, owned the Brooklyn Nets from 2010 to 2019 and ran against Vladimir Putin in the 2012 presidential election. His investment holding is the Onexim Group. Only Ukraine has sanctioned him; he is not on the US,