Finance magazine names richest Russians

Russia boasted 114 dollar billionaires at the end of last year, according to an annual ranking of the country’s richest 500 published on Monday by Finance magazine.

The top of the list is dominated by Russia’s “steel kings” – owners, or sometimes ex-owners, of sprawling metals plants. Number one, as last year, is Vladimir Lisin, low-profile chairman of the board of NLMK Steel, based in Novolipetsk, with an estimated worth of $28.3bn.

Second is Mikhail Prokhorov, who sold his shares in Norilsk Nickel at the top of the market in spring 2008 – and thus was the only oligarch with any cash to spare when the markets collapsed.

Entering the top three is Alisher Usmanov, majority owner of Metalloinvest, another metals company, and a shareholder in London’s Arsenal Football Club.

Oleg Deripaska, head of aluminium company Rusal, which floated on the Hong Kong stock exchange last year, is fourth, with an estimated fortune of $19bn. That is a striking revival for an oligarch who entered the crisis particularly heavily leveraged.

Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea FC owner who sold his Sibneft oil company in 2005 but now has big steel holdings, was in fifth place – the first time Russia’s one-time richest man has been outside Finance top three since its rankings began in 2004, ft.com reports.