Ukraine Crisis: Russia’s Richest Lose $32 Billion As Putin Signals Bigger Confrontation

Russian billionaire Novatek shareholder Leonid Mikhelson’s fortune tumbled $6.2 billion this year, while Lukoil Chairman Vagit Alekperov’s net worth has dipped about $3.5 billion in the same period

New Delhi: As tensions simmer between Russia and Ukraine, the fortunes of Russia’s super-rich have collapsed. Around $32 billion of wealth have tumbled this year, according to a report by Bloomberg.

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden unleashed sanctions targeting Russia’s sale of sovereign debt abroad and the country’s elites. Biden said that he is sending an unspecified number of additional US troops to the Baltic region in a bid to defend NATO countries.

Gennady Timchenko, who heads the list of Russian billionaires, has seen his fortunes drop, with almost a third of his wealth disappearing this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a listing of the world’s 500 richest people.

Timchenko (69), son of a Soviet military officer who met and befriended Russian President Vladimir Putin during the early 1990s, now has a fortune of about $16 billion, with the bulk of his wealth derived from a stake in Russia gas producer Novatek, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index.

Another Russian billionaire Novatek shareholder Leonid Mikhelson’s fortune has tumbled $6.2 billion this year, while Lukoil Chairman Vagit Alekperov’s net worth has dipped about $3.5 billion in the same period as the energy company’s stock has slipped about 17 per cent.

Currently, Russia’s 23 billionaires have a net worth of $343 billion, according to the wealth list, down from $375 billion at year-end.

Markets plunged further this week after Putin recognised two separatist republics in Ukraine, leading to Germany halting an energy project with Russia and the UK imposing sanctions on five of the country’s banks and three of its wealthy individuals, including Timchenko.

Also on the UK’s sanctions list are Boris Rotenberg (65) and his nephew, Igor (48), whose families made their fortune through gas pipeline construction company Stroygazmontazh.

Igor’s father, Arkady, one of Putin’s former judo sparring partners, sold the pipeline firm in 2019 for about $1.3 billion. He purchased a minority stake from his younger brother Boris five years earlier when both siblings and Timchenko were hit with US sanctions over Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, Tuesday on said he wouldn’t meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this week because it “does not make sense” given Russia’s moves in Ukraine.