The combined wealth of Russian billionaires has grown from $353 billion to $505 billion. There are several reasons. In 2022, the rating was compiled during a period of severe panic in the markets caused by the start of a “special operation”* in Ukraine.
Quotes of Russian stocks collapsed, and only 88 Russian billionaires remained in the rating out of 140 participants in a preliminary list compiled in early February. By March 11, 2022, when quotes and rates were fixed for calculating the fortunes of billionaires around the world, trading in shares of Russian companies had been frozen for more than two weeks, and the ruble exchange rate on the global interbank market had fallen to 133 rubles per dollar. Estimates of the fortunes of Russians in dollars collapsed along with the ruble.
In the current rating, quotes and exchange rates were fixed on March 10, 2023, the ruble exchange rate on that day was 75.9 rubles per dollar. The combined wealth of Russian billionaires in 2021 was estimated at $606 billion.
Last year’s rating results were also influenced by apocalyptic predictions about the Russian economy. In April 2022, the Russian Ministry of Finance, according to Bloomberg sources, predicted a fall in GDP by 12% by the end of the year. But the fall turned out to be much smaller: according to the Central Bank, Russia’s GDP in 2022 fell by 2.5%.
For the first time, Andrey Melnichenko, the founder of EuroChem and SUEK, took first place in the Russian Forbes list – his fortune more than doubled over the year, to $ 25.2 billion. This happened mainly due to the growth in the value of EuroChem, which produces fertilizers. This sector of the Russian economy showed impressive growth after the start of the special operation. And the top 20 richest Russians, in addition to Melnichenko, included two more “chemists”: co-owner of Akron Vyacheslav Kantor (No. 11, fortune $ 11.3 billion) and Andrey Guryev (No. 15, $ 9.7 billion), he and his family owns almost 50% of PhosAgro.
Last year, Kantor and Guryev were only 27th and 24th, respectively.
Vladimir Potanin, the largest shareholder of Norilsk Nickel, is on the second line of the rating, $ 23.7 billion. Last year’s leader, the owner of NLMK Vladimir Lisin, fell to third place, although his fortune increased by $ 3.7 billion over the year, to $ 22.1 billion.
There are six newcomers on the 2023 list: Andrei Krivenko, founder of VkusVill (No. 59, $2.1 billion), Seifeddin Rustamov, the main shareholder of Metafrax, (No. 90, $1.3 billion), Denis Shtengelov, founder of KDV Group (No. 94 , $ 1.3 billion), co-owner of Samolet Group Pavel Golubkov (No. 102, $ 1.1 billion), owner of Stroyservis Dmitry Nikolaev (No. 105, $ 1.1 billion) and USM minority shareholder Ivan Streshinsky (No. 109, $ 1 billion).
