The number of Russian billionaires has grown to 110, up 22 from the 88 on the Forbes list a year earlier. The combined fortune of Russians in the new Forbes ranking grew from $353 billion to $505 billion since last March.
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Russia’s richest people added $152 billion to their wealth over the past year, buoyed by high prices for natural resources and rebounding from the huge loss of fortunes they experienced just after the Ukraine war began, Forbes Russia said.
The Russian businessmen saw their profits soar last year despite the pressure of Western sanctions and the volatile state of the global economy.
Following President Vladimir Putin order sending Russian troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year on what he called “special military operation”, NATO and her allies imposed what it casts as the most severe sanctions in modern history on Russia’s economy – and some of its richest people – in an attempt to punish Putin for the war.
Despite the sanctions, Russia was still able to sell oil, metals and other natural resources to global markets, in particular to China, India and the Middle East. Its stock market has since recovered from the early loses and so has the Russian currency.
The ten most successful billionaires increased their fortunes by a combined $77.4 billion. Out of those present in both last year’s and this year’s rankings, 58 people saw their fortunes grow – by a total of $140.3 billion.
Andrey Melnichenko, whose businesses include the fertilizer producer EuroChem and the coal producer SUEK, was the biggest winner, topping the Russian Forbes list for the first time. His fortune more than doubled since last March, soaring to $25.2 billion from $11.1 billion.
While the total wealth of Russia’s billionaires was US$606 billion in 2021, Forbes reported that the list would have been longer had not five billionaires – DST Global founder Yuri Milner, Revolut founder Nikolay Storonsky, Freedom Finance founder Timur Turlov, and JetBrains co-founders Sergei Dmitriev and Valentin Kipyatkov – renounced their Russian citizenship.
Thirteen Russian businessmen lost a total of US$8.5 billion in 2022. Many of them suffered loses from sanctions, but many also has major assets abroad, and these people saw their fortunes dwindle on the drop in the S&P and the Nasdaq indexes.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
