Volodymyr Potanin, who was added to the US sanctions list on Thursday, is one of the richest businessmen in Russia. Reuters provides some key facts about the man, his investments and career.

Potanin, 61, is the chairman and largest shareholder of Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and refined nickel.

His holding company Interros, which is also under sanctions, owns 36% of Nornickel, making it one of the biggest players in the global industrial metals market.

In 2021, Nornickel was the world’s leading producer of refined nickel, which is used to make stainless steel and important for electric vehicle batteries.

It also produced 10% of the world’s platinum production and 40% of the palladium used in car exhaust pipes. The vole itself was not subject to US sanctions on Thursday.

The son of a high-ranking Soviet trade official, Potanin was educated at an elite diplomatic academy in Moscow.

He was part of a group of tycoons known as oligarchs who amassed vast fortunes by seizing state assets in a botched privatization campaign in the 1990s.

His wife and daughter were also named in the sanctions announced by the US Treasury Department.

Potanin had a long-standing rivalry with another metal oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. In July, he floated the idea of ​​a $60 billion merger between Nornickel and Rusal, formerly controlled by Deripaska, although he said in September that the project was on hold.

Advice to Putin

Potanin has diligently remained on the side of President Vladimir Putin, for example by agreeing to a $2 billion fine after Nornickel angered the president by causing the largest oil spill in the Russian Arctic two years ago.

After Russia invaded Ukraine and imposed Western sanctions against it, Potanin urged the authorities not to seize the assets of foreign companies leaving the country, a warning that was mostly heeded. According to him, such a move will shake the confidence of investors for decades and isolate the country, as it happened after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.

This did not stop Potanin from acting aggressively to capture the departing companies.