Gennady Timchenko: Gunvor Co-Founder, Volga Group Owner and the Sanctions Against Him

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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: 1952-11-09. 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 Gennady Timchenko’s net worth at $24.2 billion as of 18 October 2026 (Forbes profile). Estimates are revised continuously and Forbes and Bloomberg frequently disagree.

Gennady Timchenko is a businessman with Russian, Finnish and Armenian citizenship. He made his fortune in oil trading as co-founder of Gunvor and holds large stakes in the gas producer Novatek and the petrochemical company Sibur through his investment group, Volga Group. He has known Vladimir Putin since the 1990s; Putin has called him a friend. The United States sanctioned him in March 2014, and the European Union, the United Kingdom and other countries followed in 2022. The European Union’s courts have dismissed all of his and his wife’s challenges to their listings.

  • Born: 9 November 1952 in Leninakan, now Gyumri, Armenia (US Treasury, 2014, EU Implementing Regulation 2024/849)
  • Education: Leningrad Mechanical Institute, electromechanical engineer, 1976
  • Known for: co-founder of the oil trader Gunvor (sold his stake in March 2014), owner of Volga Group, shareholder in Novatek and Sibur, chairman of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL)
  • Sanctions as of October 2026: United States (since 20 March 2014), Canada (since 21 March 2014), Australia (since 19 June 2014), United Kingdom (since 22 February 2022), European Union (since 28 February 2022), Switzerland (since 4 March 2022), New Zealand (since 18 March 2022), Ukraine (since 19 October 2022)

Early life and citizenship

Timchenko was born on 9 November 1952 in Leninakan, today Gyumri, in Soviet Armenia, into a military family (US Treasury, 2014, Kompaniya). He spent part of his childhood in East Germany, where his father served (Novaya Gazeta, 24 May 2023). In 1976 he graduated from the Leningrad Mechanical Institute as an electromechanical engineer (Kompaniya, Forbes). He then worked at the Izhora engineering plant near Leningrad and later as a senior engineer in a unit of the Soviet foreign trade ministry (Kompaniya, Novaya Gazeta).

He became a Finnish citizen in 1999 (Yle, 21 February 2023). In 2023 the Finnish interior ministry found that the processing of his family’s citizenship applications had not broken the rules in force at the time (Yle, 27 April 2023). The US, EU and UK sanctions lists record Russian, Finnish and Armenian nationality (EU, UK sanctions list). “I’ve never made a secret of my dual citizenship,” he told TASS in 2014 (TASS, 4 August 2014).

Oil trading, Gunvor and Volga Group

In 1988 Timchenko became deputy director of Kinex, a foreign trade company that exported oil products from the Kirishi refinery near Leningrad (Kompaniya, Novaya Gazeta). In 1991 he moved to Finland to work for the trading company Urals Finland, which his partners bought in 1994 and renamed IPP (Novaya Gazeta, Kompaniya). With the Swedish trader Torbjörn Törnqvist he built Gunvor, which Bloomberg dates in its current form to 2000 (Bloomberg via Rigzone, 2 October 2026, Bloomberg via The Star, 3 December 2025). The US Treasury described Gunvor in 2014 as “one of the world’s largest independent commodity trading companies” (US Treasury, 2014). It sold crude abroad for Rosneft, Surgutneftegaz, Gazprom Neft and others (Novaya Gazeta).

On 19 March 2014, one day before the US sanctions, Timchenko sold his entire Gunvor stake to Törnqvist. Gunvor said it had prepared the change in advance in case he was sanctioned (Gunvor, 20 March 2014, CNBC, 20 March 2014, The Moscow Times, 23 March 2014). Timchenko later told TASS that “the divorce at Gunvor was planned beforehand but the storm gathering over my head sped it up” (TASS, 4 August 2014). Gunvor’s managers bought out Törnqvist at the end of 2025, and on 2 October 2026 the company renamed itself Centalion (Bloomberg via Rigzone).

Timchenko holds his other assets through Volga Group, formerly Volga Resources, based in Luxembourg (OFAC, 28 April 2014, Novaya Gazeta). According to the most recent disclosures reported by Kommersant in October 2025, he owns 23.49 percent of Novatek, Russia’s largest independent gas producer, and 14.45 percent of Sibur (Kommersant, 15 October 2025, Interfax, 21 March 2022). He left the boards of Novatek and Sibur in March and April 2022 but remained a shareholder in both (Interfax, 21 March 2022, Interfax, 7 April 2022). In 2014 he sold a 17 percent stake in Sibur to Yauza 12, a company of Kirill Shamalov (Sibur, 5 September 2014). The US State Department described the oil transport company Transoil as owned by him (US State Department via GlobalSecurity, 24 March 2022).

Since 2011 he has been president of the St Petersburg ice hockey club SKA, and since 2012 chairman of the board of the KHL; Forbes listed him in both roles in March 2026 (Kompaniya, Forbes). The Timchenko Foundation, set up in December 2010, funds programmes for children at risk of losing parental care, for the elderly, for small towns and for children’s sport (Timchenko Foundation). In 2013 France made him a knight of the Legion of Honour (The Moscow Times, 5 July 2013, Novaya Gazeta).

Relationship with Putin

Timchenko has known Putin since at least the 1990s, when Putin was a local official in St Petersburg (Reuters via Yahoo News, 28 December 2014). In 1998 he co-founded the St Petersburg judo club Yawara-Neva with the Rotenberg brothers; Putin is its honorary president (TASS, 2014, Reuters, Forbes). Asked in April 2014 about Timchenko and other sanctioned businessmen, Putin said: “they are indeed my good acquaintances, my friends. But for the most part they had made their fortunes before we even met” (Kremlin, 17 April 2014). Timchenko told TASS the same year: “If I call myself a friend of his, this won’t look appropriate” (TASS, 4 August 2014). Both men have denied that Putin’s patronage was the key to his business success (The Moscow Times, 6 November 2014).

Sanctions authorities describe the relationship in their own words. The US Treasury placed him among “members of the inner circle” in 2014 and wrote that “Timchenko’s activities in the energy sector have been directly linked to Putin” (US Treasury, 20 March 2014). The EU called him “a long-time acquaintance of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin” who “is broadly described as one of his confidants” (EU Implementing Regulation 2022/336). During his case against the EU listing, his lawyer Stéphane Bonifassi said it was true that Timchenko had long known Putin, but disputed calling him a confidant (Novaya Gazeta, 2023).

Gunvor and the US Treasury

When the US Treasury sanctioned Timchenko on 20 March 2014, it wrote about Gunvor: “Putin has investments in Gunvor and may have access to Gunvor funds” (US Treasury, 20 March 2014, ABC News, 21 March 2014). The statement does not accuse Gunvor of money laundering, and Gunvor itself was not sanctioned. It does not appear on the US, UK, EU, Canadian or Swiss sanctions lists we checked in October 2026. Gunvor rejected the claim the same day: “President Putin has not and never has had any ownership, beneficial or otherwise in Gunvor. He is not a beneficiary of Gunvor or its activities” (The Moscow Times, 20 March 2014, CNBC).

In November 2014 the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, each citing people familiar with the matter, reported that federal prosecutors in Brooklyn were investigating whether Timchenko had moved funds linked to allegedly corrupt deals in Russia through the US financial system (Wall Street Journal via Fox News, 6 November 2014, Bloomberg via Swissinfo, 6 November 2014). Gunvor said it had not been informed of any investigation. Volga Group said the report did “not contain any concrete evidence to support any of the charges and is merely an act of provocation” (The Moscow Times, 6 November 2014). We found no record of charges against Timchenko or of any official outcome of the reported investigation.

Sanctions

CountryListedStatus in October 2026
United States20 March 2014Listed (OFAC SDN list; designated again on 24 March 2022 under the Russia programme)
Canada21 March 2014Listed (Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations, item 31)
Australia19 June 2014Listed (Australian consolidated list); listed afresh under the Russia criteria in June 2023
United Kingdom22 February 2022Listed (UK sanctions list, RUS0235): asset freeze, travel ban, trust services and transport sanctions, director disqualification
European Union28 February 2022Listed; the measures run until 22 September 2029
Switzerland4 March 2022Listed
New Zealand18 March 2022Listed (Russia Sanctions Register)
Ukraine19 October 2022Listed (Decree 727/2022, ten years)

The United States designated Timchenko on 20 March 2014, after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, together with Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, Yuri Kovalchuk and Bank Rossiya (US Treasury, 20 March 2014). His investment company Volga Group followed on 28 April 2014 (OFAC). On 24 March 2022 the US government designated him again under its new Russia programme and added his wife Elena Timchenko and his daughter Natalya Browning. His yacht Lena was listed as blocked property (US State Department via GlobalSecurity, 24 March 2022, OFAC, 24 March 2022). Italy seized the Lena in the port of San Remo in March 2022 (Boat International, 6 March 2022, Novaya Gazeta). Canada listed him on 21 March 2014 (Prime Minister of Canada, 21 March 2014).

The European Union listed him on 28 February 2022. Besides his acquaintance with Putin, the EU cited his stake in Bank Rossiya, “which is considered the personal bank of Senior Officials of the Russian Federation”, and in 2024 added that he is the second largest shareholder in Novatek (EU Implementing Regulation 2022/336, 2024/849). His wife was listed on 8 April 2022. At the review of 22 September 2026 the EU rewrote her entry and kept his unchanged; the measures now run until 22 September 2029 (EU Implementing Regulation 2026/2160, Decision 2026/2161). The United Kingdom designated him on 22 February 2022, his wife on 13 April 2022 and Natalya Browning and Volga Group on 4 May 2022. The British statement of reasons rests on his involvement in destabilising Ukraine and does not mention Putin (UK sanctions list).

Switzerland listed him on 4 March 2022 and New Zealand on 18 March 2022 (Swiss sanctions list, New Zealand sanctions register). Ukraine sanctioned him on 19 October 2022 for ten years (annex to Decree 727/2022). Australia listed him on 19 June 2014, declared the listing to continue in 2017 and 2020 and in June 2023 listed him afresh under its Russia criteria; its consolidated list of 16 October 2026 still includes him (Ukraine List 2014, Amendment List 2017, Continuing Effect Declaration 2020 (No 1), Amendment (No. 7) Instrument 2023, Australian Sanctions Consolidated List, 16 October 2026).

Court cases against the EU listing

  • Timchenko, T-252/22 and C-702/23 P: The EU General Court dismissed his action on 6 September 2023, and the Court of Justice dismissed his appeal on 1 August 2025. The General Court had found that he was “a friend of Mr Putin” and the second largest shareholder of Bank Rossiya, over which he “undeniably had a very substantial influence” (Court of Justice, C-702/23 P).
  • Elena Timchenko, T-361/22 and C-703/23 P: action dismissed on 6 September 2023, appeal dismissed on 1 August 2025 (Court of Justice, C-703/23 P).
  • Elena Timchenko, T-298/23 and C-399/25 P: action against the renewal of 2023 dismissed on 2 April 2025, appeal dismissed on 16 July 2026 (General Court, T-298/23, Court of Justice, C-399/25 P).
  • Both spouses, T-644/22 and C-805/24 P: challenge to the duty of listed persons to report their assets dismissed by the General Court on 11 September 2024 and on appeal on 16 October 2025 (General Court, T-644/22, Court of Justice, C-805/24 P).

We checked the US, UK, Canadian and Polish lists on 11 October 2026, the Swiss list of 5 October 2026, Australia’s consolidated list of 16 October 2026 and the EU list as of its review of 22 September 2026. Poland does not list him.

About this profile

This profile was rewritten in October 2026. The 2022 version said that “the US Treasury Department alleged that Gunvor had helped to launder money for the Russian government” and that the United States had sanctioned Gunvor. The Treasury statement of March 2014 contains no such allegation, and Gunvor was not sanctioned; the reports about a money laundering investigation date from November 2014 and concerned Timchenko, as described above. The old version also dated the EU sanctions to 2015; the EU listed him in February 2022. It said that Canada sanctioned him in 2018 over the Skripal poisoning; Canada listed him in March 2014, after the annexation of Crimea. It further said that he had partnered with Mikhail Khodorkovsky to buy Yukos, sat on the International Olympic Committee, owned stakes in RT and FC Basel, worked for Marc Rich in 1992 and owned Sibur outright. We found no source for any of these statements. These passages have been removed. Net worth estimates change frequently; Forbes publishes a current figure on its profile of Timchenko.

Sources

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