Public opinion reflects new stance
Nepotism is rife within the Russian oligarchy, so, naturally, Sechin’s son also has a cushy job at the top. Ivan Sechin is a chairman at his father’s company, Rosneft.
Igor Sechin is the CEO, president, and chairman of Rosneft, the Russian state oil company. Before he took on this powerful position, he served as Putin’s deputy prime minister, and is widely considered to be Putin’s unofficial deputy to this day.
Sechin was always one of Putin’s most conservative ministers at the Kremlin, which earned him the nickname "Darth Vader." He has been heavily sanctioned in the wake of the Ukrainian invasion. He is subject to a travel ban and his assets in the US have been frozen.
Tokarev is the president of another of Russia’s most profitable companies. He runs Transneft, a Russian oil and gas pipeline company. Tokarev once served with Putin in the KGB and benefited greatly from Putin’s assumption of power in the early 2000s.
Alisher Usmanov is a well-known Russian billionaire who was once the richest man in the country. He is a metal and technology tycoon who owns one of the country’s largest phone networks, MegaFon, along with many other businesses. He was also one of Facebook’s biggest investors at one point.
Some of the media companies under his control have been accused of peddling anti-Ukrainian propaganda by the EU, contributing to the current situation in Ukraine.
Fridman was hit with sanctions after the EU described him as “a top Russian financier and enabler of Putin’s inner circle.” The statement added that Fridman was actively and financially involved in the annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of Ukraine, both of which he directly benefited from.
Mikhail Fridman is one of the founders of Alfa Group, the owner of Russia’s largest privately-owned bank, Alfa-Bank, as well as Russia’s biggest supermarket chain and phone network. Fridman, whose fortune is an estimated US$15.5 billion, was actually born in Ukraine.
Aven spends a great deal of time in the UK where he has further business interests, and served as a trustee of the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts. He stepped down from this position after a damning EU report accused him of being one of Putin’s closest confidants.
Petr Aven is Mikhail Fridman’s business partner, serving as the chair of Alfa-Bank. He’s also a politician and served as Russia’s trade minister in the early 1990s.
Sergei Roldugin is an extremely wealthy Russian cellist and businessman. He is a close friend of Putin’s and has been nicknamed “Putin’s wallet.” He keeps his substantial assets in Rossiya Bank, which is associated with Putin and his regime.
Leaked documents suggested the bank illegally created shadow companies to store offshore wealth for Russian oligarchs. Roldugin has been accused of moving US$2 billion through this shady network of banks and offshore companies.
Ponomarenko was one of many oligarchs close to Putin who helped fund the construction of an enormous palace that cost an estimated US$1 billion. It's believed to have been built for Putin’s private use, although it has mostly been kept a mystery.
Alexander Ponomarenko is the chairman of Moscow’s international airport. He’s another oligarch who is considered to be very close to Putin’s inner circle, and has also been linked to the Russian leaders in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Gennady Timchenko is a longtime friend and confidant of Putin’s. He’s the owner of a private investment group called Volga Group and a shareholder in Bank Rossiya. Both of these businesses are under sanction, as well as Timchenko himself, who can’t travel or access his assets abroad.
Timchenko had already been sanctioned by the UK and US as far back as 2014 for the role he and his businesses played in funding the Crimean invasion.
The EU placed sanctions on Mordashov, but he denied any involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, stating: “I have never been close to politics and have always focused on building economic value at the companies I have worked for both in Russia and abroad.”
Alexei Mordashov is the chairman of the steelmaking and mining companies Severstal and Severgroup. The EU says that these companies control TV stations that are supportive of Putin’s actions in Ukraine. Mordashov is also a shareholder in the infamous Rossiya Bank.
Petr Fradkov is the chairman of Russia’s state-owned bank PJSC Promsvyazbank. PJSC provides “financial support to the Russian defense sector and the Russian Military,” according to an EU report. This means that the bank is directly funding the war in Ukraine.
Fradkov is the sole executive body of the bank, giving him the final say on everything that happens. The EU alleges that PJSC is instructed by Putin, essentially giving him free reign over the bank’s resources. His main use for those resources has been to start a war.
Abramovich’s links to Putin are not as direct as some of the other oligarchs in question and he wasn’t immediately sanctioned, but members of the UK government called for sanctions against the billionaire who is now desperately trying to offload his foreign assets like Chelsea and a US$100 million London home.
Roman Abramovich is one of the best-known oligarchs internationally, thanks to his ownership of the English soccer club Chelsea. He has owned the prestigious club for nearly 20 years, but decided to put it up for sale amid scrutiny of his connections to the Russian state.
Abramovich has tried to walk a razor-thin tightrope in publicly supporting Ukraine without burning his bridges with Putin. He has offered to act as a middleman in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and plans to donate the profits of the Chelsea sale to the victims of the war.
Ivanov Sr. is one of Putin’s closest confidants. They served in the KGB together and Ivanov played many key roles in Putin’s government over the years: chief of staff of the presidential executive office, deputy prime minister, defense minister, and since 2016 has served as the "Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on the Issues of Environmental Activities, Ecology and Transport."
Sergei Sergeevich Ivanov is the CEO of a Russian state-owned diamond mining company called Alrosa. He’s also a board member of Gazprombank, Russia’s third-largest financial institution. Ivanov is closely connected to Putin through his father, Sergei Borisovich Ivanov.
His close connections to Putin and his son’s enviable placement at the top of a state-run company have put them both on US sanctions lists.
Andrey Patrushev is the son of yet another one of Putin’s KGB buddies. His father, Nikolai Patrushev, became the leader of the Federal Security Service after the KGB was dissolved. He was already sanctioned in 2018 and was implicated in the fatal radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.
Andrey Patrushev has enjoyed leadership positions at Gazprom Neft, Russia’s third-largest oil producer. He and his father have both been sanctioned by the US for their connections to the Russian government.
Sources: (The Wall Street Journal) (Financial Times) (Business Insider) (EUR-Lex) (CNBC)
The EU has stated that Tokarev was ”one of the state oligarchs who assumed control over large state assets in the 2000s as Putin consolidated power, and who operates in close partnership with the Russian state.”
An oligarch is an incredibly wealthy person whose financial prosperity gives them the power to influence politics. In Russia, the term oligarch takes on a whole new meaning. Putin came into power quite soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, at a time when the former communist nation was starting to privatize its industries. The dissolution of the country’s previous political and financial structure left a question mark over who owned many of the state’s assets. Questionable deals were done, and those who were friendly with the new political powers, i.e.. Putin, found themselves in a very comfortable position.
This is how the phenomenon of the Russian oligarchy came to be. Thanks to this major political and financial shift in the 1990s, and Putin’s swift and long-lasting rise to political domination, many of these wealthy individuals find themselves in incredible positions of power.
Browse through the following gallery to get to know some of the most prominent Russian oligarchs in Putin’s back pocket. Click on!
Get to know Russia's top oligarchs
Who are they, and why are they so important?
LIFESTYLE Oligarchy
An oligarch is an incredibly wealthy person whose financial prosperity gives them the power to influence politics. In Russia, the term oligarch takes on a whole new meaning. Putin came into power quite soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, at a time when the former communist nation was starting to privatize its industries. The dissolution of the country’s previous political and financial structure left a question mark over who owned many of the state’s assets. Questionable deals were done, and those who were friendly with the new political powers, i.e.. Putin, found themselves in a very comfortable position.
This is how the phenomenon of the Russian oligarchy came to be. Thanks to this major political and financial shift in the 1990s, and Putin’s swift and long-lasting rise to political domination, many of these wealthy individuals find themselves in incredible positions of power.
Browse through the following gallery to get to know some of the most prominent Russian oligarchs in Putin’s back pocket. Click on!