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Russian oligarchs ( Russian: олигархи,
romanized Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
: ''oligarkhi'') are business oligarchs of the former Soviet republics who rapidly accumulated wealth in the 1990s via the Russian privatisation that followed the
dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
. The failing Soviet state left the ownership of state assets contested, which allowed for informal deals with former
USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...
officials (mostly in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
and
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...
) as a means to acquire state property. Historian
Edward L. Keenan Edward Louis "Ned" Keenan, Jr. (May 14, 1935 - March 9, 2015) was an American professor of history at Harvard University who specialized in medieval Russian history (especially the cultural and the political history of Muscovy). He became a pro ...
has compared these oligarchs to the system of powerful boyars that emerged in late-medieval Muscovy. The first modern Russian oligarchs emerged as business-sector entrepreneurs under
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Com ...
( General Secretary 1985–1991) during his period of market liberalization. The term " oligarch" derives from the Ancient Greek ''oligarkhia'' meaning "the rule of the few". Since 2017, several Russian oligarchs and their companies have been hit by US sanctions under the table of Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for their support of "the Russian government's malign activity around the globe". In 2022, many Russian oligarchs were targeted and sanctioned by countries around the world as a rebuke of Russia's war against Ukraine.


Yeltsin era

During
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Com ...
's
perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
(-1991), many businessmen in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
imported goods such as personal computers and jeans into the country and sold them for a hefty profit. During the 1990s, once
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
became
President of Russia The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federa ...
in July 1991, the oligarchs emerged as well-connected entrepreneurs who started from nearly nothing and became rich through participation in the market via connections to the corrupt, but elected,
government of Russia The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russ ...
during the state's transition to a market-based economy. The so-called voucher privatization program of 1992–1994 enabled a handful of young men to become billionaires, specifically by arbitraging the vast difference between old domestic prices for Russian commodities (such as natural gas and oil) and the prices prevailing on the world market. Because they stashed billions of dollars in private Swiss bank accounts rather than investing in the Russian economy, they were dubbed " kleptocrats". These oligarchs became extremely unpopular with the Russian public, and are commonly thought of as the cause of much of the turmoil that plagued the
Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' described the oligarchs as "about as popular with your average Russian as a man idly burning bundles of £50s outside an orphanage".


Emergence

Economists
Sergei Guriev Sergey Maratovich Guriyev (russian: Серге́й Мара́тович Гури́ев, os, Гуриаты Мараты фырт Сергей / Gwyriaty Maraty fyrt Sergej) is a Russian economist, who is Provost and a professor of economics at t ...
and Andrei Rachinsky contrast older oligarchs with nomenklatura ties and younger-generation entrepreneurs such as
Kakha Bendukidze Kakha Bendukidze ( ka, კახა ბენდუქიძე; 20 April 1956 – 13 November 2014) was a Georgian statesman, businessman and philanthropist, founder of the Knowledge Foundation and head of the supervisory board of Agricultura ...
who built their wealth from scratch because Gorbachev's reforms affected a period "when co-existence of regulated and
quasi-market Quasi-markets are markets which can be supervised and organisationally designed that are intended to create greater desire and more efficiency in comparison to conventional delivery systems, while supporting more accessibility, stability and impart ...
prices created huge opportunities for
arbitrage In economics and finance, arbitrage (, ) is the practice of taking advantage of a difference in prices in two or more markets; striking a combination of matching deals to capitalise on the difference, the profit being the difference between t ...
." Although the majority of oligarchs were not formally connected with the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union " Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspape ...
, there are allegations that they were promoted (at least initially) by the communist apparatchiks, with strong connections to Soviet power-structures and access to the funds of the Communist Party.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky (russian: link=no, Михаил Борисович Ходорковский, ; born 26 June 1963), sometimes known by his initials MBK, is an exiled Russian businessman and opposition activist, now residing in L ...
started his business importing computers under auspices of the Komsomol-authorised Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of the Youth in 1986, briefly serving as a deputy secretary of the Komsomol for a district in Moscow in 1987. His move into banking two years later was funded with support from Komsomol alumni working in Moscow city government. Later, he served in Russian government as an adviser to the prime minister and a deputy minister of fuel and power while still running his business.
Petr Aven Petr Olegovich Aven (also transliterated Pyotr Aven; russian: Пëтр Олегович Авен; Latvian: Pjotrs Avens; born 16 March 1955) is a Russian oligarch, businessman, economist and politician who also holds Latvian citizenship. Until ...
worked alongside economist Yegor Gaidar in the (VNIISI), a
Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...
think tank modelled after RAND. Gaidar later became the economics editor of the '' Kommunist'' journal, the official theoretical organ of the CC of the CPSU. He also held various positions up to the interim prime minister in the Russian government during 1991–1992. A friend and a business partner of Boris Berezovsky, was a researcher at VNIISI as well. Berezovsky himself was Head of the Department of System Design at the another Academy of Sciences research centre, . His enterprise was established by the Institute as a
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
. Vladimir Vinogradov was the chief economist of Promstroibank, one of the six banks existing in the Soviet Union, previously serving as the secretary of
Atommash Atommash (russian: «Атоммаш») is a multidisciplinary engineering company located in Volgodonsk, Rostov Oblast, Russia. It was established in 1976 as a nuclear engineering corporation. Following privatization and bankruptcy in 1999, the ...
plant Komsomol organisation. Official Russian media usually depicted oligarchs as the enemies of "communist forces", which were portrayed as a
stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for exampl ...
that describes political power that wants to restore Soviet-style communism in Russia. Post-Soviet business oligarchs include relatives or close associates of government officials, even government officials themselves, as well as criminal bosses often connected to the Russian government. Some members of these groups achieved vast wealth by acquiring state assets very cheaply (or for free) during the privatization process controlled by the Yeltsin government of 1991–1999. Specific accusations of corruption are often leveled at Anatoly Chubais and Yegor Gaidar, two of the "Young Reformers" chiefly responsible for Russian privatization in the early 1990s. According to
David Satter David A. Satter (born August 1, 1947) is an American journalist and historian who writes about Russia and the Soviet Union. He has authored books and articles about the decline and fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of post-Soviet Russia. Sat ...
, author of ''Darkness at Dawn'', "what drove the process was not the determination to create a system based on universal values but rather the will to introduce a system of private ownership, which, in the absence of law, opened the way for the criminal pursuit of money and power".


Involvement in politics

During Yeltsin's presidency (1991–1999) oligarchs became increasingly influential in Russian politics; they helped finance his re-election in 1996. Well-connected oligarchs like Abramovich, Khodorkovsky, Berezovsky and Potanin acquired key assets at a fraction of the value at the
loans for shares scheme Beginning in 1995, Boris Yeltsin's government began privatizing state-owned shares in companies through a loans for shares scheme. The scheme helped with "fundraising" for Yeltsin's 1996 reelection campaign and restructuring freshly-sold compa ...
auctions conducted in the run-up to the election. Defenders of the out-of-favor oligarchs, often associated with Chubais's partythe Union of Right Forcesargue that the companies they acquired were not highly valued at the time because they still ran on Soviet principles, with non-existent stock control, huge payrolls, no financial reporting and scant regard for profit. They turned the businesses around and made them profitable for shareholders.


At the end of the century

The
1998 Russian financial crisis The Russian financial crisis (also called the ruble crisis or the Russian flu) began in Russia on 17 August 1998. It resulted in the Russian government and the Russian Central Bank devaluing the ruble and defaulting on its debt. The crisis had ...
hit some of the oligarchs hard, however, and those whose holdings were still based mainly in
banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...
lost much of their fortunes. The most influential and well-known oligarchs from the Yeltsin era include: * Boris Berezovsky * Mikhail Fridman * Vladimir Gusinsky *
Mikhail Khodorkovsky Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky (russian: link=no, Михаил Борисович Ходорковский, ; born 26 June 1963), sometimes known by his initials MBK, is an exiled Russian businessman and opposition activist, now residing in L ...
*
Vladimir Potanin Vladimir Olegovich Potanin (russian: Владимир Олегович Потанин; born 3 January 1961) is a Russian billionaire businessman. He acquired his wealth notably through the controversial loans-for-shares program in Russia in ...
*
Alexander Smolensky Alexander Pavlovich Smolensky (russian: Алекса́ндр Па́влович Смолéнский) (born July 6, 1954) is a Russian business oligarch. Biography Alexander Smolensky began his business activities on the black market of the so ...
*
Pyotr Aven Petr Olegovich Aven (also transliterated Pyotr Aven; russian: Пëтр Олегович Авен; Latvian: Pjotrs Avens; born 16 March 1955) is a Russian oligarch, businessman, economist and politician who also holds Latvian citizenship. Until M ...
* Vladimir Vinogradov * Vitaly Malkin They formed what became known as the (or "seven-banker outfit", ), a small group of businessmen with a great influence on Boris Yeltsin and his political environment. Together they controlled from 50% to 70% of all Russian finances between 1996 and 2000. Fridman, Potanin, Aven and Malkin retained their wealth in the Putin era, which began in 1999. ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' reported in 2008 that oligarchs' from the era of former president Boris Yeltsin have been purged by the Kremlin".


Putin era

During Putin's first presidency term, a number of oligarchs came under fire for various illegal activities, particularly tax evasion in the businesses they acquired. However, it is widely speculated and believed that the charges were also politically motivated per these tycoons falling out of favor with the Kremlin. Vladimir Gusinsky of MediaMost and Boris Berezovsky both avoided legal proceedings by leaving Russia, and the most prominent,
Mikhail Khodorkovsky Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky (russian: link=no, Михаил Борисович Ходорковский, ; born 26 June 1963), sometimes known by his initials MBK, is an exiled Russian businessman and opposition activist, now residing in L ...
of
Yukos OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" (russian: ОАО Нефтяна́я Компа́ния Ю́КОС, links=no, ) was an oil and gas company based in Moscow, Russia. Yukos was acquired from the Russian government by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkov ...
oil, was arrested in October 2003 and sentenced to 9 years. This was subsequently extended to 14 years, and after Putin pardoned him, he was released on 20 December 2013. An economic study distinguished 21 oligarchic groups as of 2003. Between 2000 and 2004, Putin apparently engaged in a power struggle with some oligarchs, reaching a "grand bargain" with them. This bargain allowed the oligarchs to maintain their powers, in exchange for their explicit support of – and alignment with – Putin's government. However, other analysts argue that the oligarchic structure has remained intact under Putin, with Putin devoting much of his time to mediating power-disputes between rival oligarchs. Some had been imprisoned, such as Mikhael Mirilashvili. Many more have become oligarchs during Putin's time in power, and often due to personal relations with Putin, such as the director of the institute where Putin obtained a degree in 1996,
Vladimir Litvinenko Vladimir Stefanovich Litvinenko (russian: Влади́мир Стефа́нович Литвине́нко, born 14 August 1955) is a Russian academic, businessman and Vladimir Putin's campaign manager. He is also rector of Saint Petersburg Mining ...
, and Putin's childhood friend and
judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...
-teacher Arkady Rotenberg. Daniel Treisman proposed using a term "silovarch" ( silovik and oligarch) for new Russian oligarchs with backgrounds in Russian military and intelligence. Prominent oligarchs of the Putin era include Roman Abramovich,
Alexander Abramov Alexander Grigoryevich Abramov (russian: Александр Григорьевич Абрамов, born 1959) is a Russian businessperson, who until March 2022 was the Chairman of the Board of directors of Evraz, one of Russia's largest steel p ...
, Oleg Deripaska,
Mikhail Prokhorov Mikhail Dmitrievich Prokhorov ( rus, Михаил Дмитриевич Прохоров, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈproxərəf; born 3 May 1965) is a Russian-Israeli oligarch, politician, and former owner of the Brooklyn Nets. I ...
, Alisher Usmanov, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg, Leonid Mikhelson, Vagit Alekperov, Mikhail Fridman, Dmitry Rybolovlev,
Vladimir Potanin Vladimir Olegovich Potanin (russian: Владимир Олегович Потанин; born 3 January 1961) is a Russian billionaire businessman. He acquired his wealth notably through the controversial loans-for-shares program in Russia in ...
,
Pyotr Aven Petr Olegovich Aven (also transliterated Pyotr Aven; russian: Пëтр Олегович Авен; Latvian: Pjotrs Avens; born 16 March 1955) is a Russian oligarch, businessman, economist and politician who also holds Latvian citizenship. Until M ...
, and Vitaly Malkin. In 2004, ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' listed 36 billionaires of Russian citizenship, with a note: "this list includes businessmen of Russian citizenship who acquired the major share of their wealth privately, while not holding a governmental position". In 2005, the number of billionaires dropped to 30, mostly because of the
Yukos OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" (russian: ОАО Нефтяна́я Компа́ния Ю́КОС, links=no, ) was an oil and gas company based in Moscow, Russia. Yukos was acquired from the Russian government by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkov ...
case, with Khodorkovsky dropping from No. 1 (US$15.2 billion) to No. 21 (US$2.0 billion). A 2013 report by Credit Suisse found that 35% of the wealth of Russia was owned by the wealthiest 110 individuals. Billionaire, philanthropist, art patron and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev has criticized the oligarchs, saying "I think material wealth for them is a highly emotional and spiritual thing. They spend a lot of money on their own personal consumption." Lebedev has also described them as "a bunch of uncultured ignoramuses", saying "They don't read books. They don't have time. They don't go to rtexhibitions. They think the only way to impress anyone is to buy a yacht." He also notes that the oligarchs have no interest in social injustice. On 30 January 2018, the
US Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...
published a "list of oligarchs" per Pub.L. 115–44.


Oligarchs in London

A significant number of Russian oligarchs have bought homes in upmarket sections of London in the United Kingdom, which has been dubbed "Moscow on Thames" or "Londongrad". Some, such as Eugene Shvidler, Alexander Knaster,
Konstantin Kagalovsky Konstantin Grigoryevich Kagalovsky (russian: Константин Григорьевич Кагаловский; born 13 October 1957) is a Russian businessman. He is the former vice-president of the oil company Yukos and a key Yukos shareholder, ...
, David Wilkowske and Abram Reznikov, are
expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
s, having taken permanent residency in London. Most own homes in both countries as well as property and have acquired controlling interests in major European companies. They commute on a regular basis between London and Russia; in many cases their families reside in London, with their children attending school there. In 2007 Abram Reznikov bought one of Spain's mega recycling companies, Alamak Espana Trade SL, while Roman Abramovich bought the English football club Chelsea F.C. in 2003, spending record amounts on players' salaries. The billionaire Moscow oligarch Mikhail Fridman, Russia's second richest man at a time, was restoring
Athlone House Athlone House, formerly known as Caen Wood Towers, is a large Victorian country houses in the United Kingdom, house in Highgate, north London, England. Built around 1872, it was designed by Edward Salomons and John Philpot in an intricate styl ...
in London as a primary residence in 2016, to be worth an estimated £130 million when restored.


2008 global recession and credit crisis

According to the financial news-agency Bloomberg L.P., Russia's wealthiest 25 individuals have collectively lost US$230 billion (£146 billion) since July 2008. The fall in the oligarchs' wealth relates closely to the meltdown in Russia's stock market, as by 2008 the RTS Index had lost 71% of its value due to the capital flight after the Russo-Georgian War of August 2008. Billionaires in Russia and Ukraine have been particularly hard-hit by lenders seeking repayment on balloon loans to shore up their own balance sheets. Many oligarchs took out generous loans from Russian banks, bought shares, and then took out more loans from western banks against the value of these shares. One of the first to get hit by the global downturn was Oleg Deripaska, Russia's richest man at the time, who had a net worth of US$28 billion in March 2008. As Deripaska borrowed money from western banks using shares in his companies as collateral, the collapse in share price forced him to sell holdings to satisfy the margin calls.


2022 Invasion of Ukraine and sanctions

After the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. A ...
, Canada, US, and European leaders with the addition of Japan, took unprecedented steps to sanction Putin and the oligarchs directly. In response to the sanctions, the targeted oligarchs started to hide wealth in an attempt to prevent the Western nations from freezing their assets. These sanctions intend to directly impact the Russian ruling class as a response for their perceived contribution and acquiescence to the war with Ukraine. Although the sanctions tend to miss the richest oligarchs, the impact on the war is unknown due to Putin's power over those that were sanctioned. Since the invasion began, nine of the Russian oligarchs' yachts have turned their navigation transponders off as they sail to ports where they are less likely to be searched and seized. In addition to freezing foreign holdings, restricting travel, and severing business ties, the sanctions aim to impact the personal lives of a number of oligarchs including; *
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
(President of Russia) * Alexander Aleksandrovich Vedyakhin ( Sberbank banking executive) * Andrey Sergeyevich Puchkov ( VTB Bank banking and football chairman) * Yuriy Alekseyevich Soloviev (
FC Dynamo Moscow FC Dynamo Moscow (''FC Dynamo Moskva'', russian: Дина́мо Москва́ ) is a Russian football club based in Moscow. Dynamo returned to the Russian Premier League for the 2017–18 season after one season in the second-tier Russian Fo ...
club chairman and a VTB Bank executive) * Igor Sechin (
Rosneft PJSC Rosneft Oil Company ( stylized as ROSNEFT) is a Russian integrated energy company headquartered in Moscow. Rosneft specializes in the exploration, extraction, production, refining, transport, and sale of petroleum, natural gas, and petro ...
oil executive and former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia) * Andrey Patrushev (son of the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev) * Sergei Sergeevich Ivanov (Board member of Gazprombank and president of Alrosa diamond mining) *
Kirill Shamalov Kirill Nikolayevich Shamalov (russian: Кирилл Николаевич Шамалов; born 22 March 1982) is a Russian businessman, the ex-husband of Katerina Tikhonova and the ex-son-in-law of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was ...
(
Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the large ...
Executive and former son-in-law of Putin) * Yury Slyusar (director of
United Aircraft Corporation , former_name = OJSC United Aircraft Corporation (2006–2015) , type = Public, PJSC , traded_as = , industry = Aerospace, defense , predecessor = Ilyushin, Irkut, Mikoyan, Sukhoi, Tupolev, Yakovlev , founded = , founder = Vladimir P ...
and board member of
Aeroflot PJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines (russian: ПАО "Аэрофло́т — Росси́йские авиали́нии", ), commonly known as Aeroflot ( or ; russian: Аэрофлот, , ), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. The ...
, Russian Airlines Pjsc and United Aircraft) * Petr Fradkov ( Promsvyazbank executive, son of Mikhail Fradkov) *
Gennady Timchenko Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko (russian: Геннадий Николаевич Тимченко, ''also spelled'' Guennadi Timtchenko; born 9 November 1952) is a Russian oligarch and billionaire businessman. He founded and owns the private inve ...
(president of
Volga Group Volga Group is a privately held investment vehicle that manages assets on behalf of the businessman Gennady Timchenko. History Volga Group was established as Volga Resources in 2007, and renamed as Volga Group in June 2013. The group consolida ...
private equity) On March 2, 2022, the United States announced a special task force dubbed "
Task Force KleptoCapture Task Force KleptoCapture is a United States Department of Justice unit established in March 2022 with the goal of enforcing sanctions on Russian oligarchs in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian invasion of Ukraine. Backgrou ...
". This team was put together to specifically target oligarchs. It is made up of officials from the FBI, Marshals Service,
IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...
,
Postal Inspection Service The United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), or the Postal Inspectors, is the law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service. It supports and protects the U.S. Postal Service, its employees, infrastructure, and customers by enfor ...
, Homeland Security Investigations and
Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. Fo ...
. The main goal of the task force is to impose the sanctions set against these individuals to freeze and seize the assets that the US government claimed were proceeds of their illegal involvement with the Russian government and the invasion of Ukraine. On March 21, 2022, the
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a global network of investigative journalists with staff on six continents. It was founded in 2006 and specializes in organized crime and corruption. It publishes its stories throug ...
launched Russian Asset Tracker to showcase the profiles and assets of several Russian oligarchs.


In popular culture

*
Peter Morgan Peter Julian Robin Morgan, (10 April 1963) is a British screenwriter and playwright. He is the playwright behind '' The Audience'' and '' Frost/Nixon'' and the screenwriter of ''The Queen'' (2006), '' Frost/Nixon'' (2008), '' The Damned Unit ...
's play '' Patriots'' depicts the rise and fall of oligarchs by focusing on the story of Boris Berezovsky bringing
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
to power and later falling out with him. The play was staged in Almeida Theatre, London in 2022. *The 2002 Russian movie '' Tycoon'' tells the story of emergence of oligarchs during the early years of Russian capitalism. The film is based on , a book about Boris Berezovsky written by . * The main antagonist of the fourth episode of the first season (1x04) of '' Fast & Furious: Spy Racers'' (''"The Owl Job"'') is a Russian oligarch named Sudarikov (voiced by
Fred Tatasciore Fred Tatasciore (; ) is an American voice actor who has provided voices in animated and live-action films, television shows, and video games. He is known for voicing the Hulk and Beast in various Marvel media and Solomon Grundy in various DC ...
), who is known to be a notorious high-end
arms dealer The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and servi ...
. * One of the most recurring characters during the third and fourth seasons of '' Billions'' is the ruthless European billionaire oil tycoon Grigor Andolov (played by John Malkovich), a powerful Russian oligarch, owner of a billionaire oil empire and a dangerous criminal from
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...
with ties to with the European criminal underworld and protected by various authoritarian governments.


See also

* 2022 Russian businessmen mystery deaths * Banking in Switzerland *
Corruption in Russia Corruption is perceived as a significant problem in Russia, impacting various aspects of life, including the economy, business, public administration, law enforcement, healthcare, and education. The phenomenon of corruption is strongly establish ...
*
List of Russian billionaires This is a ranking list of Russian billionaires. The following is based on the annual estimated wealth and assets assessment compiled and published by American business magazine ''Forbes''. The wealth of 83 people exceeds $ 1 billion. Methodolog ...
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Media mogul A media proprietor, media mogul or media tycoon refers to a entrepreneur who controls, through personal ownership or via a dominant position in any media-related company or enterprise, media consumed by many individuals. Those with significant co ...
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Oligarchy Oligarchy (; ) is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate ...
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Political groups under Vladimir Putin's presidency A diverse variety of informal political groups emerged during the presidency of Vladimir Putin. They include remnants of the Yeltsin family, Saint Petersburg lawyers and economists, and security-intelligence elements called the siloviki. Backg ...
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Privatization in Russia Privatization in Russia describes the series of post-Soviet reforms that resulted in large-scale privatization of Russia's state-owned assets, particularly in the industrial, energy, and financial sectors. Most privatization took place in the ...
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Reputation laundering Reputation laundering occurs when a person or an organization conceals unethical, corrupt, or criminal behavior by performing highly-visible positive actions with the intent to improve their reputation and obscure their history. Reputation launderi ...
* Robber baron (industrialist) * Russian asset tracker * Russian mafia * Tycoon * Ukrainian oligarchs


References


Further reading

* * * Bowen, Andrew
"Why London Is So Crucial to Putin's Russia"
'' The Interpreter'', 20 March 2014. * Hoffman, David E. ''The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia'', New York,
Perseus Book Group Perseus Books Group was an American publishing company founded in 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. Perseus acquired the trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley (including the Merloyd Lawrence imprint) in 1997. It was named Publisher of the Y ...
, 2002. * Hollingsworth, Mark, and Stewart Lansley, ''Londongrad: From London with Cash: The Inside Story of the Oligarchs'', London, Fourth Estate, 2009. * * Watkins, Thayer
"The Russian Oligarchs of the 1990s"
applet-magic.com. * Yablon, Alex (31 March 2013)
"Oligarchology"
''New York''.


External links


Russian Asset Tracker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russian Business Oligarch + 1990s establishments in Russia Politics of Russia Social groups of Russia Wealth in Russia