Bloomberg names 12 oligarchs who receive billions in dividends from the Russian war economy

Bloomberg reported on July 9 that Russia’s war economy has paid $11 billion in dividends to a dozen oligarchs, while Russian commodity and financial giants have reaped record profits during the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The oligarchs “received billions of dollars in dividends as their companies resumed or increased payouts,” while Russia became increasingly confident that its economy would stay afloat despite international sanctions.

Bloomberg used publicly available dividend information to show that “at least a dozen businessmen earned more than 1 trillion rubles ($11.3 billion) in 2023 and the first quarter of this year.”

The top earner was Vagit Alekperov, the main shareholder of Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil company, who received around 186 billion rubles ($2.1 billion) in dividends.

Alexey Mordashov earned 148 billion rubles ($1.7 billion) from Severstal, Russia’s largest steel company, while Vladimir Lisin earned 121 billion rubles ($1.4 billion) from Novolipetsk Steel, another major steel producer.

Alekperov is subject to British sanctions but not to US and EU sanctions, while Mordashov is sanctioned by the US, UK and EU. No major restrictions have been imposed on Lisin, Bloomberg noted.

Other top earners include Uzbek-Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, who made his fortune through mining and metals companies and has been sanctioned by the US, UK and EU.

The EU described Usmanov as a “pro-Kremlin oligarch with particularly close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin” and rejected his request to be removed from European sanctions lists in February 2024.

Another top earner is the Russian-Israeli oligarch Leonid Michelson, against whom the US and Great Britain have imposed sanctions but the EU has not. Michelson is CEO of Novatek, Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer after Gazprom.

Many state-controlled companies such as Gazprom and Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, “never stopped paying dividends despite making record profits during the war,” Bloomberg said.

Source: Ukrainian drone attack damaged Russia’s only full-cycle metallurgical plant

Ukraine carried out a drone strike on July 1 that “seriously” damaged the Russian military-industrial complex, the Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant (OEMK).