Andrey Guryev: PhosAgro Founder, Former Senator and the Sanctions Against Him

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Bundle of Russian 5,000-ruble banknotes

Photo: Vardan Papikyan, Unsplash License, via Unsplash

Sanctions status — checked 18 October 2026

Listed by: US (OFAC SDN) · 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: 1960-03-24. 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 Andrei Guryev and family’s net worth at $10.8 billion as of 18 October 2026 (Forbes profile). Estimates are revised continuously and Forbes and Bloomberg frequently disagree.

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, who ran PhosAgro as chief executive from 2013 to 2022. The United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand have sanctioned the father; the European Union, Switzerland, Canada and Australia have listed only the son.

  • Full name: Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev (also spelled Andrei Guriev)
  • Born: 24 March 1960 in Lobnya, Moscow region (Federation Council, RIA Novosti)
  • Education: State Central Institute of Physical Culture (1983); St Petersburg State Mining Institute (2006)
  • Known for: founder of PhosAgro and deputy chairman of its board (2013–2022); senator for the Murmansk region (2001–2013)
  • Sanctions as of October 2026: United Kingdom (since 6 April 2022), United States (since 2 August 2022), New Zealand (since 12 October 2022); not listed by the European Union, Switzerland, Canada, Australia or Ukraine

Two Andrey Guryevs

This profile is about Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, born on 24 March 1960. His son Andrey Andreevich Guryev, born on 7 March 1982, became PhosAgro’s chief executive on 31 July 2013 and resigned on 10 March 2022 (Prime, 31 July 2013, PhosAgro, 10 March 2022). The father was never PhosAgro’s chief executive. Sanctions lists, honours and media reports often mix the two up. The EU, Switzerland and Canada list only the son; the Order of Friendship that President Putin awarded in May 2022 also went to the son, as president of the Russian Association of Fertiliser Producers (EU Implementing Regulation 2022/396, RSPP, 5 May 2022, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 13 December 2022).

Komsomol, Menatep and Apatit

Guryev was born in Lobnya near Moscow and graduated from the State Central Institute of Physical Culture in 1983; in 2006 he took a second degree at the St Petersburg State Mining Institute (RIA Novosti, 29 May 2013, Federation Council). In the late 1980s he held leading posts in the Komsomol, the Communist youth league, in Moscow’s Frunze district; a London court found that around 1989 he was first secretary of a Moscow district Komsomol committee (Kommersant, 29 May 2013, High Court, [2024] EWHC 2174 (Comm)).

From 1990 he worked for Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Menatep group, in 1991 as deputy director of its association of credit and financial companies, and later in the management of Menatep’s industrial holding Rosprom (RIA Novosti, Kommersant). In 1995 he became head of Rosprom’s mining and chemical department. According to the London High Court, Khodorkovsky proposed in mid-1995 that he take over the management of the phosphate miner Apatit, and by 28 July 1995 he had done so (RIA Novosti, High Court, 26 September 2024). Before he joined the Federation Council in 2001 he was general director of the Samoilov research institute for fertilisers, NIUIF, and in 2001–2002 he chaired the board of Apatit (Federation Council, RIA Novosti, Vologda Region, citing Interfax, 12 March 2020).

PhosAgro

PhosAgro was registered in October 2001 (PhosAgro, notes to the 2024 financial statements). Vedomosti reported that the Menatep group’s chemical assets were combined in it and that Menatep sold the company to its management in two halves, in 2001 and 2005, without disclosing buyers or prices (Vedomosti, 30 May 2013). Before its stock market listing in 2011 PhosAgro disclosed that Guryev and members of his family were its beneficiaries (Interfax, June 2011). In 2013 the family held more than 63 percent (Vedomosti, Prime, 31 July 2013).

The family’s stake is held through two holding companies, Adorabella and Chlodwig Enterprises, whose shares are held by trusts. In April 2022 PhosAgro said that the economic beneficiaries of these trusts were Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, his wife and his daughter; the two companies then owned 43.66 percent of PhosAgro and his wife Evgenia another 4.82 percent directly (Interfax, 20 April 2022, PhosAgro, 21 May 2019). At the end of 2024 PhosAgro named Adorabella, now registered in Russia, as its largest shareholder with about 23.35 percent and stated that it has no ultimate controlling party; it does not disclose how the holdings are now divided (PhosAgro, notes to the 2024 financial statements).

From 2013 Guryev was deputy chairman of PhosAgro’s board of directors (PhosAgro, 12 March 2020, UK sanctions list). On 10 March 2022 PhosAgro announced that he and his son had both stepped down from the board and that the son had resigned as chief executive (PhosAgro, 10 March 2022, Interfax, 10 March 2022). Since July 2025 PhosAgro’s chief executive has been Alexander Gilgenberg (Interfax, 9 July 2025).

Federation Council

From November 2001 to May 2013 Guryev sat in the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, as the representative of the executive authority of the Murmansk region (Federation Council, US Treasury, 2 August 2022). On 29 May 2013 the Federation Council ended his mandate early at his own request. He said he wanted to concentrate on business and planned to become chairman of PhosAgro’s board (RIA Novosti, 29 May 2013, RIA Novosti, 29 May 2013, Kommersant, 29 May 2013). His state awards include the Order of Honour (2012) and the Order of Alexander Nevsky (2020) (RIA Novosti, PhosAgro, 12 March 2020).

Sanctions

CountryAndrey Grigoryevich (father)Andrey Andreevich (son)
United Kingdom6 April 202215 March 2022
United States2 August 20222 August 2022
New Zealand12 October 202212 October 2022
European Unionnot listed9 March 2022
Switzerlandnot listed16 March 2022
Canadanot listed3 May 2022
Australianot listedApril 2022
Ukrainenot listed (wife and daughter listed)not listed

The United Kingdom designated the father on 6 April 2022. Its statement of reasons describes him as “a former Deputy Chair of the Board of Directors at PJSC PhosAgro”, a post “which he held between 2013 and 2022”, and says that through this directorship he was involved in obtaining a benefit from or supporting the Russian government by working as a director in the chemicals sector, a sector of strategic significance. A director disqualification sanction followed in April 2025 (UK sanctions list, OFSI notice, 22 February 2024). On 22 February 2024 the UK also listed his daughter, Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, because she is associated with both her father and her brother (OFSI notice, 22 February 2024).

The US Treasury designated father and son on 2 August 2022. It described the father as “a known close associate of Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin” who “previously served in the Government of the Russian Federation”, and designated him for operating in the accounting and management consulting sectors of the Russian economy. It added that PhosAgro itself is not sanctioned (US Treasury, 2 August 2022). On 14 November 2022 the Treasury also designated Chlodwig Enterprises and Adorabella, “two Swiss companies that hold assets for trusts that benefit A.G. Guryev and his family” (US Treasury, 14 November 2022). New Zealand listed both father and son on 12 October 2022, the father as “Founder and former deputy chair of Phosagro” (New Zealand Russia Sanctions Register).

In its 2022 announcement the Treasury said that the father owns Witanhurst, “the second-largest estate in London after Buckingham Palace”; City A.M. reported that his lawyers have denied any ties to the house (US Treasury, 2 August 2022, City A.M., 3 October 2022). The Treasury also identified the yacht Alfa Nero, which he “reportedly bought for $120 million in 2014”, as his blocked property. Antigua and Barbuda declared the yacht abandoned and compulsorily acquired it in April 2023; the US removed it from its sanctions list on 1 June 2023 because it was then owned by Antigua’s port authority, and Antigua sold it at auction in July 2024 for $40 million (OFAC, 1 June 2023, Antigua Observer, 3 June 2023, SuperyachtNews, 2 April 2026). His daughter claims that the yacht belonged to a company controlled by a trust of which she is the sole adult beneficiary, and has challenged the seizure in court; Antigua’s courts refused to stop the sale, and a constitutional challenge to the seizure law was still undecided in April 2026 (Island Press Box, 24 November 2023, appellant’s brief, US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, SuperyachtNews).

The EU listed only the son, on 9 March 2022, as chief executive of PhosAgro; Switzerland followed on 16 March and Canada on 3 May 2022 (EU Implementing Regulation 2022/396, Canada’s consolidated sanctions list). Australia listed the son in April 2022, by an instrument dated 7 April 2022, as “CEO of PJSC PhosAgro”; the father does not appear on its list (Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (No. 11) Instrument 2022, Australian Sanctions Consolidated List, 7 October 2026). Ukraine’s sanctions decision of 19 October 2022 lists his wife Evgenia Guryeva and his daughter, but neither Andrey Guryev (annex to Decree 727/2022). We checked the US, UK and Canadian lists as of 8 October 2026, the Swiss list as of 5 October 2026, New Zealand’s register and Poland’s national list as of 11 October 2026, Australia’s consolidated list as of 7 October 2026 and the EU list as of its review of 22 September 2026. Japan’s list could not be checked.

The London case over PhosAgro shares

Alexander Gorbachev, who had known Guryev since their Komsomol days, sued him in London, claiming 24.75 percent of Guryev’s shares in PhosAgro on the basis of alleged oral declarations of trust in 2005 and 2008. Because Guryev is sanctioned and could not travel to the UK, the judge heard his evidence in Dubai. On 26 September 2024 the High Court dismissed the claim, finding that Gorbachev had failed to prove his case (High Court, Gorbachev v Guriev [2024] EWHC 2174 (Comm), 26 September 2024, Brick Court Chambers, 26 September 2024). We found no report of an appeal, and no criminal case against Guryev.

About this profile

This profile was rewritten in October 2026. The 2022 version mixed up father and son: it described the father as PhosAgro’s current chief executive and the son as deputy chief executive, and dated the father’s time in the Federation Council to 2011–2013. It also claimed that he received the Order of Friendship in 2013, holds degrees from the University of Greenwich and the Russian Academy of National Economy, holds honorary doctorates from Moscow State University and the University of St Petersburg, owns a penthouse in London, and has donated millions to charity. We found no source for these statements; the Order of Friendship went to his son in 2022. They have been removed. Statements about Witanhurst and Alfa Nero are now attributed to the US Treasury. 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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