By Moran Zhang - Russia’s 10 richest individuals lost as much as $6.6 million, or 4.7 percent of their combined net worth since last Monday, according to a new report published by Wealth-X, after the country’s ruble-denominated MICEX index plunged nearly 11 percent last week due to escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
The MICEX index of Russian stocks lost about $60 billion in market capital. And Russia’s 10 wealthiest men own over 10 percent of the equity wealth in Russia.
The benchmark index continued its slide Friday, plunging to the lowest levels since 2009 -- two days before a referendum in Crimea is expected to provoke western sanctions against Russia. Year-to-date, the index is down by about 20 percent.
Alisher Usmanov – the country’s wealthiest man with interests in mining, telecommunications, media, and sports, including a more than 30 percent stake in Arsenal F.C. Football Club -- lost $1.7 billion after a week of market turmoil, shrinking his personal fortune from $20 billion to $18.3 billion.
The Uzbek-born Russian oligarch reportedly invested $97 million to build communications infrastructure, a sports complex, and a standby technical center for the recently concluded winter Olympics in the Russian resort town of Sochi.
Among the billionaires who appear in Wealth-X’s list of the top 10 richest Russians, Vladimir Potanin -- the president of Interros, one of Russia's largest private investment companies -- lost the largest chunk of his fortune in the past week. Potanin’s net worth was reduced to $10.4 billion after he lost about $2 billion.
Below are the top 5 wealthiest Russians and their net worth: