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February 2, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 2
US includes 210 tycoons, CEOs and officials in 'Kremlin Report'
The list was met with bemusement in Moscow as the list of oligarchs almost exactly matches last year’s Russian Forbes magazine rich list of Russian businessmen worth more than $1bn. The wholesale copying of the rich list belies the point of the report, which was to identify those oligarchs that had made their money thanks
to their close connections to Putin rather than simply a list of the top businessmen.
“To determine the list of oligarchs, the Department of the Treasury enumerated those individuals who, according to reliable public sources, have an estimated net worth of $1 billion or more. Those individuals who meet this criterion are listed in Appendix 2 of this report,” the Department of the Treasury said in its report.
Taking this blunderbuss approach means many well respected Russian businessmen have been caught up in the list that will likely impair their ability to raise money abroad.
At the top of the Forbes list is Leonid Mikhelson, the owner of independent gas producer Novatek, who is worth $18.4bn and certainly could not operate or be successful without the patronage
of the Kremlin. But second on the list is Alexey Mordashov, the owner of Severstal steel mill,
who is worth $17.5bn and is widely respected as being simply a good businessman and doesn't rely on the Kremlin for his fortune. He is followed by Vladimir Lisin, owner of Novolipetsk Meatllurgical Kombinat (NLMK), another steel mill and another clean and respectable businessman.
Indeed, the first really dubious name on the Forbes list is Gennady Timchenko at number four. He is worth $16bn and is the first stoligarch —
a term for the businessmen who owe their
fortunes almost entirely to Putin’s personal patronage.
Other men high up on the list are well known
for being no friends of Putin. Vagit Alekperov,
the owner of Russia’s largest independent oil producer Lukoil, who is worth $14.5bn and is
at six on the list, is terrified of being attacked
and taken over by the Kremlin, according to bne IntelliNews sources in the company. And Mikhail Fridman, the owner of the Alfa Group and worth $14.4bn, has left Russia despite being explicitly and publicly being told by Putin to keep his money and invest it at home. Fridman is no angel but he is no friend of Putin’s either.
However, despite previous concerns no immediate sanctions are being introduced, in what is currently more of a name and shame exercise. Moreover, there is a classified part of the list that was not released that reportedly contains more details of each entrant’s wealth and their personal connections to Putin.
The CEO of Russia's largest bank German Gref, the head of Russia's largest oil company Rosneft Igor Sechin, the head of Russia's gas giant Gazprom Alexei Miller and the head of Russia's second-largest state controlled bank VTB Andrei Kostin of VTB, are among the state-affiliated top managers listed.
Here too there is a contrast. Sberbank has become an investors’ darling and Russia’s top “tourist stock” – if you are going to buy one Russian stock, because you to track the MSCI Russia or EM index and have to have some exposure, then Sberbank is the name you buy. Gref has won wide praise for taking the retail banking monster in hand and turning it into not only the best bank in Russia but one of the most dynamic banks in Europe.
Sechin on the other hand is about as much of
a stoligarch as it is possible to be. He is widely considered the third most powerful man in Russia and is clearly above the law. In the recent