– Vladimir Potanin, who was positioned on a U.S. sanctions record on Thursday, is one in all Russia’s wealthiest businessmen. Listed below are some key information on the person, his investments and his profession.
- Potanin, 61, is the president and largest shareholder at Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and refined nickel. His holding firm, Interros – which was additionally sanctioned – owns 36% of Nornickel, making him some of the vital gamers within the world marketplace for industrial metals. In 2021 Nornickel was the world’s high producer of refined nickel, used to make stainless-steel and vital for electrical car batteries. It additionally extracted 10% of the world’s platinum and 40% of its palladium, which is utilized in automotive exhausts. Nornickel itself was not focused by the U.S. transfer on Thursday.
- The son of a high-ranking Soviet commerce official, Potanin was educated at Moscow’s elite diplomatic academy. He was one in all a bunch of tycoons generally known as the oligarchs who acquired huge wealth by taking on prize state belongings in a flawed privatisation drive within the Nineteen Nineties. His spouse and daughter had been additionally named within the sanctions announcement by the U.S. Treasury.
- Potanin has waged a long-running rivalry with one other metals oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. In July he floated the thought of a $60 billion merger of Nornickel with Rusal, previously managed by Deripaska, although he stated in September that this was on maintain.
- Potanin has taken care to remain on the precise facet of President Vladimir Putin, as an example by accepting a $2 billion nice after Nornickel angered the president by inflicting Russia’s largest Arctic oil spill two years in the past.
- After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the imposition of Western sanctions towards it, Potanin urged the authorities to not confiscate the belongings of international corporations leaving the nation – a warning that was largely heeded. He stated such a step would shatter investor confidence for many years and isolate the nation, as occurred after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
- That didn't cease Potanin from shifting aggressively to snap up departing companies. Inside 10 weeks of the beginning of the struggle, he had purchased Rosbank from French lender Societe Generale, acquired the Russian unit of U.S.-listed fintech group World Funds, and bought 35% of TCS Group Holding, proprietor of a web based financial institution. The latter was purchased from its founder Oleg Tinkov, who had spoken out towards the invasion and stated he had been pressured by the Kremlin into making a “hearth sale” to Potanin. Rosbank was additionally focused by Thursday’s sanctions.
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