Forbes magazine has traditionally published the ranking of the richest people in the world in 2023.
The list also includes the Russian segment, which was first headed by Andrey Melnichenko, who founded SUEK and Eurochem. As of the beginning of the year, the businessman’s accounts were valued at $25.2 billion.
Vladimir Potanin, who hid the environmental disaster at Norilsk Nickel, was named the second rich native of Russia. The fortune of the head of Norilsk Nickel is 23.7 billion in US dollars. The top three is closed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of NLMK Vladimir Lisin. In a year, unlike Igor Altushkin, Viktor Vekselberg, Leonid Mikhelson, Roman Abramovich and Gennady Timchenko, he increased his capital by $3.7 billion. Today, last year’s leader of the rating has $22.1 billion.
Fourth in the ranking of the publication is Leonid Mikhelson. The authors estimated his fortune at 21.6 billion. Alexey Mordashov, chairman of Severstal with an indicator of 20.9 billion, is in fifth place.
This is the 37th time Forbes has ranked the richest people. According to the American publication, in the aggregate, Russian oligarchs managed to increase their fortune over the past year from 353 to 505 billion dollars. However, their number has decreased. The figure dropped from 123 people in 2021 to 110 people in 2023.
As the editors explain, in 2022, the rating had to be compiled at a turbulent time for the market, when participants panicked because of the start of a special military operation. During that period, quotes of Russian securities collapsed. Summing up: only 88 Russian billionaires managed to stay in the rating. For clarity: in the preliminary lists compiled at the beginning of February, 140 participants were included.
In the first half of March, stock trading remained frozen for more than two weeks. The ruble has weakened to 133 per dollar. This situation influenced expert assessments of the wealth of the richest Russians. The new rating already took into account a different exchange rate, which is valid as of March 10, 2023 – 75.9 rubles per dollar.
In this regard, the compilers of the rating recommend that those interested do not compare the results of 2023 with last year’s release. More accurate data will be obtained if we compare the ratings of 2023 and 2021.
