The Top 5 Modern Oligarchs Who Are Wildly Rich

Greek philosophical titan Aristotle (384 to 322 B.C.E.) considered oligarchy to be a perverted form of aristocracy. Aristocracy, he said, is rule by those most fit to rule — a rare setup. Oligarchy happens when those in power cease working for the common good and only seek to enrich or empower themselves. The self-interested and wealthy get their hands entangled in government, in other words. "That sounds like everywhere," people might reply. But in some nations, oligarchical tendencies run far stronger than in others. 

Ever since the most recent invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022, one country keeps getting called an oligarchy: Russia. This isn't without good reason. Russian president Vladimir Putin is a dictator encased in a barricade of wealthy Russian "industry tycoons," as The Washington Post says. They own superyachts and mines, oil refineries and factories. They rose to power following the collapse of the Soviet Union, as the Boris Yelstin-ran government privatized and started selling whole industries on the cheap. 

Now, both old- and new-generation oligarchs sit squarely in Vladimir Putin's pocket. It's these individuals who got hit by sanctions at the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian War, and it's these individuals who offloaded their wealth to foreign countries. Collectively, they're worth about $600 billion. That money is spread across quite a few individuals, but the wealthiest, in order, are Vladimir Potanin, Leonid Mikhelson, Alexey Mordashov, Vladimir Lisin, and Alisher Usmanov. Each person has peanuts in comparison to someone like Elon Musk, who's worth around $440 billion and has himself been called an oligarch. But to most people, they're still absurdly wealthy.

Bear in mind that the list of richest Russian oligarchs changes by the month as wealth drains, accumulates, gets shuffled around, and more. Also, figures vary depending on the source, but we'll be going by Forbes' numbers as of this writing. And since we're dealing with billionaires under sanctions who are interested in safeguarding their wealth, there's really no way to know if any figure is 100% accurate. 

That being said, as of January 20, 2025, Forbes reports that the richest man — and oligarch — in Russia is Leonid Mikhelson, worth $29.1 billion. That makes him the 63rd richest man in the world, which indicates precisely how wealthy the wealthiest humans are. A mere three years ago, in March, 2022 — shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine — Mikhelson sat at No. 2 on the Russian oligarch wealth list at $22.6 billion. But fortune has been kinder to him than others. As a "beneficiary" of the Russo-Ukrainian War, per Trap Aggressor, Mikhelson has been dubbed the "master of gas" for his petrochemical dealings. He's the largest shareholder in natural gas company Novatek at 24.76%, which has roots in the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 2017, he also acquired nearly 50% of Sibur, Russia's largest petrochemical company. 

Mikhelson and Vladimir Putin also have close, mutually beneficial ties. As Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty explains, Mikhelson has lobbied Russia's president to enact legal changes that will benefit his ventures. He also employs Putin's daughter, Katerina Tikhonova, in two separate roles at the Acrobatic Rock and Roll All-Russian Federation and Innopraktika Foundation. Like many other Russian oligarchs, Mikhelson is under sanctions no matter how he's thriving.

Close on the heels of Leonid Mikhelson is Vladimir Lisin, who Forbes says has $29 billion in wealth and is the 64th richest person in the world, right behind Mikhelson. Like Mikhelson, Lisin is another beneficiary of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Right after the 2022 invasion, he sat at No. 4 on the wealthiest Russian oligarchs list at $21.6 billion. His rise in wealth not only comes from business dealings over the past couple years but also increased involvement in the country's arms industry.

Lisin originally made his money in the steel and transport industries. He is the owner of Novolipetsk Steel Company (NLMK), Freight One, and formerly Port One. In 2023, he sold the latter to SG-Trans, Russia's largest transporter of petroleum gas, for about $2.15 billion. More pertinently, Lisin has supplied steel to numerous arms of the Russian military since the country's 2014 invasion of Crimea, Ukraine. This includes Mariyskiy Machine-Building Plant, Electromashina Research and Production Association, the All-Russian Research Institute of Technical Physics, Tekhnodinamika Joint Stock Company, Polyus Research and Production Center, and Izhevsk Electromechanical Plant Kupol. These companies produce everything from anti-aircraft radar to machine gun parts, aviation power systems, nuclear armaments, and more.

As Disclose explains, Lisin is not under the same sanctions as other Russian oligarchs, besides not being able to fly his private jet to Australia. Nonetheless, the outlet conducted an investigation into his shipping company, Volga Shipping, and found that it was bypassing European Union (EU) regulations regarding the shipment of cargo, including oil. The probe's findings were published in 2022, but it doesn't appear to have led to EU sanctions.

The next Russian oligarch on the list, Vagit Alekperov, also has roots in the privatization of Russian industry following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Named deputy minister of the country's oil and gas industry in 1990, he came into wealth by fusing three oil companies — Langepas, Uray and Kogalym — into one oil company, Lukoil. This put him over the billionaire mark. Shortly after, PBS explains that Russian news outlet Izvestia investigated Alekperov's involvement in organized crime. Lukoil bought it out and fired its top editors. 

Alekperov's wealth has more or less risen since then, barring a huge dip in 2022. That year, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and after getting hit by heavy sanctions, Alekperov resigned from his position at Lukoil. He also let go of his stake in Dutch superyacht company Heesen Yachts, which built Alekperov's own superyacht (that he now can't access). As Forbes quotes Dutch sanctions, any yachts owned by Russia "may not be supplied, transferred or exported at this time." That year, Alekperov's wealth tumbled from $24.9 billion in 2021 to $10.5 billion. The next year in 2023, though, it shot back up to $20.5 billion and now sits at $27.2 billion, per Forbes.

This sudden re-rise in wealth stems from the same source of Alekperov's 2022 losses: the Russo-Ukrainian war. As Awani International explains, Alekperov retained an 8.55% share in Lukoil after resigning from the company. It now supplies Russian wartime power plants with products like toluene, a crude oil byproduct.

Formerly sitting at No. 1 on the wealthiest Russian oligarchs list, Alexey Mordashov now sits at No. 4 with $25.4 billion. He occupies a strange spot amidst Russian business sectors, with one foot each in the steel and tourism industries. Mordashov made his money as CEO of Russia's largest steel company, Severstal, a kind of umbrella business that contains no less than 24 steel-related operations. Elsewhere, he is the largest shareholder in Germany's Tui, one of the world's biggest tourism businesses. As the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists uncovered, he's also worked with tax advisory company PwC to funnel his money through 65 shell companies across the globe.

Mordashov also has a stake in Rossiya Bank, described by the EU as the "personal bank" of Russian government officials (per The Guardian). This is why Mordashov was hit early and hard with sanctions. According to Open Sanctions, he is "involved in economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation" and "is also supporting and implementing actions and policies which undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine." Mordashov claims otherwise, of course. 

Mordashov's loss of money in 2022 comes from these sanctions, totalling $400 million. This is true despite him transferring ownership of his funds right when the punishments hit. He transferred $1.1 billion to his wife, for instance, leading sites like on Forbes to headline Mordashov's information under "Alexey Mordashov & family."

For a short time after the Russo-Ukrainian War broke out, Vladimir Potanin sat at No. 1 on the heap of Russian oligarchs in terms of wealth at $25.9 billion. Now he's worth around $23.7 billion, much of which comes from his involvement with Norilsk Nickel, aka Nornickel, a palladium and nickel mining and refinement company. In 1990, just before the Soviet Union collapsed, Potanin founded Interros, a holding company with investments spread out over everything from tourism to banking to mining. Interros, in turn, owns 36% of Nornickel. Before venturing into entrepreneurship, Potanin also worked in the Soviet government at the Ministry of Foreign Trade.  

Much like other Russian oligarchs, Potanin hit some stumbling blocks after the country invaded Ukraine in 2022. Within a week, he stepped down from his position as trustee of New York City's Guggenheim Museum for unstated, albeit obvious, war-related reasons acknowledged by the museum (it also said that their Potanin Conservation Fellowship no longer existed). At the same time, multiple countries placed Potanin's ventures under sanctions, and $7 billion in his New York City property assets also came under threat during his divorce.

When Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin rebelled against Moscow in June 2023, Potanin fled Russia for Turkey. He seems to be alive and well and conducting business as usual. According to Carnegie Politika, Potanin shifted much of Nornickel's metal exports to China and is planning on relocating the company's copper production to China by 2027. "It is better to be inside the system than to watch from the outside as you get, so to speak, squeezed out," he said.