The wife of the rector of the St. Petersburg Mining University, Tatyana Litvinenko, became the second richest woman in Russia
Elena Baturina, the widow of former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, lost her position in the list of the richest women in Russia: the first place remained with the owner of the Wildberries company Tatyana Bakalchuk, and the second place in the ranking was taken by Tatyana Litvinenko. Who is she and what is known about her?
Last week Forbes magazine published an up-to-date list of the twenty richest Russian women, assessing their finances and assets. As last year, it was headed by the founder of the Wildberries marketplace Tatyana Bakalchuk, whose capital is estimated at $7 billion. For now, it seems that it is impossible to move the entrepreneur from the top of the top 20 richest women in Russia, but relatively recently the positions of another constant figure in this rating, Elena Baturina, the widow of the ex-mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov, looked just as strong; for a long time she was the only Russian woman with a fortune more than $1 billion, and other women have not been able to come close to her figures. But today she ranks only sixth with a fortune of $1.3 billion – worthy competition has appeared. But unexpectedly in second place was a woman who until recently remained a no-name person for the general public – Tatyana Litvinenko. Her fortune is $2.8 billion. We will talk about her in more detail.
Who is Tatyana Litvinenko?
Tatyana Litvinenko’s husband is the rector of the St. Petersburg Mining University, Vladimir Litvinenko. In 2022, he found himself under Western sanctions and transferred 20.6% of the Phosagro holding to his wife: this is Europe’s largest producer of phosphorus-containing fertilizers. Phosagro produces more than 50 brands of various products, including mineral fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia and sodium tripolyphosphate. The group’s products are sold both on the Russian market and abroad – in the CIS countries, Latin America, Europe and Asia. At the end of last year, the company’s net profit increased by 42% and amounted to 184.7 billion rubles.
Business media call Phosagro shares a profitable investment. Between June 2022 and July 2023, that is, in just over a year, the group paid dividends four times totaling more than 236 billion rubles. Of this, about 49 billion rubles were accounted for by the block of shares owned by Tatyana Litvinenko.
There is very little information about Tatyana Litvinenko, who literally burst into the top 20 richest women in Russia, in the public domain. Now the wife of the rector of St. Petersburg Mining University is 65 years old. How writes Life, about the middle of the last decade, Litvinenko was listed as a co-founder of the “Service Center on Nalychnaya Street” enterprise, which owns the private author’s school “Mountain”. This organization also acted as an investor in the construction of the St. Petersburg residential complex “Vasilievsky Quarter”. At the end of 2022, the enterprise’s income reached half a billion rubles. Currently, the business is owned by the partners of Vladimir Litvinenko; it is unknown whether the rector’s wife is involved in it.
As for real estate, the publication reports that Tatyana Litvinenko is registered in an apartment of 150 square meters worth about 100 million rubles in a premium club house on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg. Real estate agents describe it as a very attractive and comfortable place. The closed territory of the residential complex is under protection; this project provides a landscape park with sculptures, playgrounds and recreation areas. The apartments have panoramic windows with triple glazing that protect from city noise. Inside the building there is supply and exhaust ventilation, central air conditioning, its own boiler room and a multi-stage water filtration system. Not far from the residential complex there is the Primorsky Victory Park, the Fruit Garden and Elaginsky Island.
Various media outlets write with reference to the EGRN database that Tatyana and Vladimir Litvinenko prefer to spend most of their time outside the city – the couple lives in the resort village of Solnechnoye, which is located on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. As Life notes, if you pay attention to satellite images, it is possible that the couple may own an entire estate with a pond and a summer theater. On a plot of 1.3 hectares there is a main house of 743 square meters, buildings for guests (108 square meters), servants (150 square meters) and security (111 square meters), as well as a garage of 128 square meters. Based on market prices, such real estate can be valued at a billion rubles.
Who else made the list?
Among other Russian women who were included in the rating were many former and current wives of large businessmen, as well as their daughters. This is a trend today, because large entrepreneurs, finding themselves under Western sanctions, are getting rid of assets in favor of family members.
Third place in the top 20 richest women in Russia was taken by Varvara Skoch, the daughter of State Duma deputy Andrei Skoch, whose fortune is estimated at $2.5 billion. She owns 30% of the holding company USM, which has a stake in Metalloinvest, Megafon and others. Andrey Skoch himself does not officially own any property.
In fourth place was Marina Mordashova, who is listed as a private investor with a fortune of $1.85 billion. Her husband, billionaire Alexey Mordashov, gave her most of the shares of his gold mining company Nordgold. Mordashov, by the way, received fifth place in the top 110 Russian billionaires in 2023 according to Forbes.
Fifth place went to Lydia Mikhailova and her family, whose fortune is estimated at $1.55 billion. Mikhailova is the ex-wife of the founder of the Cherkizovo group, Igor Babaev. The holding includes 14 poultry and 20 pig-breeding complexes, as well as more than 300,000 hectares of agricultural land.
In sixth place as the richest woman in the country, as mentioned above, is Elena Baturina, and in seventh place is Victoria Mikhelson with a fortune of $1.2 billion. Her father Leonid Mikhelson is the founder of Novatek. According to media reports, in January 2023, he transferred to his daughter the Optima company, which, according to the latest data, owns 2.3% of the shares of Novatek, as well as 100% of the shares of GES-2 LLC, a legal entity of the GES-2 House of Culture 2″ in the capital. Previously, Victoria Mikhelson oversaw projects at the VAC Foundation to support young artists and studied art history at New York University and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.
Eighth place is occupied by Evgenia Guryeva, the wife of the founder of the Phosagro group, Andrei Guryev. The couple’s son served as chairman of the group from 2013-2022. The United States added both father and son to the sanctions list.
In ninth place is Ekaterina Fedun, the daughter of Lukoil co-owner Leonid Fedun. Her fortune is estimated at $800 million.
The top ten is closed by Lyudmila Kogan, the widow of businessman Vladimir Kogan, who inherited her husband’s assets, including a stake in Uralsib Bank. Her net worth is $725 million.
The second top ten is opened by Lidiya Sulteeva with $675 million. The wife of co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of TAIF Rustem Sulteev owns 50% in the Vulcan company, which owned a stake in TAIF JSC.
In twelfth place is Olga Belyavtseva with $600 million. Belyavtseva is an ex-shareholder of Lebedyansky, she also owns a share in the Progress company and the Agronom-Sad company.
Thirteenth place is occupied by Elena Rybolovleva, whose fortune is estimated at $600 million. Her ex-husband is businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev. The property division trial lasted seven years and ended with a peace agreement in 2016, after which her name began to appear in the Forbes ranking.
Seventeenth place was taken by the wife of Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov, Larisa Alekperova, with a fortune of $245 million.
Also worthy of mention are the new participants in the ranking – Maria and Tatyana Filev, who were in the penultimate and last lines, respectively. They each own 25% of the S7 Group of Companies holding company. Another 50% of the shares remained with their father, Vladislav Filev. Tatyana Fileva served as the holding’s general director from October 2021 to 2022, then left her position, explaining her step by the desire to start new projects and fatigue from operational management.
