Vladimir Potanin

Vladimir Olegovich Potanin (; born 3 January 1961) is a Russian billionaire businessman. He acquired his wealth notably through the controversial loans-for-shares program in Russia in the early to mid-1990s. As of August 2022, he was the wealthiest man in Russia and the 38th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $24.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In the 2023 Forbes ranking, he moved to second place, with an estimated net worth of $23.7 billion. His long-term business partner was Mikhail Prokhorov until they decided to split in 2007. Subsequently, they put their mutual assets in a holding company, Folletina Trading, until their asset division was agreed upon. In January 2018, Potanin appeared on the US Treasury's "Putin list" of 210 individuals closely associated with Russian president Vladimir Putin. In June 2022, the UK has imposed sanction on Potanin for being one of the major oligarchs in "President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle." Early life and education Potanin was born in Moscow, in the former USSR, into a high-ranking Russian communist family. In 1978, he attended the faculty of the International economic relations at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), which groomed students for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Upon graduating MGIMO in 1983, he followed in his father's footsteps and went to work for the all-union foreign trade organization (FTO) Soyuzpromexport, which was an arm of the Ministry of Foreign Trade.