Kathrine Frich
From the moment Vladimir Putin rose to power, Russia’s richest businessmen played a central role in consolidating his rule.
Their fortunes, built in the chaos of the post-Soviet years, were never separate from politics.
Over time, Putin transformed that relationship, turning powerful oligarchs from independent actors into instruments of the state, a system that would prove crucial once Russia went to war.
From power brokers
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a small group of businessmen amassed vast fortunes by taking control of former state assets.
Their wealth translated into political influence, and figures such as Boris Berezovsky claimed to operate at the heart of power.
Berezovsky later expressed regret for backing Putin’s rise.
“I did not see in him the future greedy and usurping tyrant, the man who would trample on freedom and stop Russia’s development,” he wrote in 2012.
A year later, he was found dead in exile in Britain.
By the time Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, that era was over.
When he summoned Russia’s richest businessmen to the Kremlin that day, none openly objected.
Pressure and reward
The BBC reported that Western sanctions failed to turn Russian billionaires against the Kremlin. Instead, a mix of coercion and opportunity kept them compliant.
Former banking tycoon Oleg Tinkov described how that pressure worked. After he criticized the war as “crazy,” Kremlin officials warned his executives that Tinkoff Bank would be nationalized unless ties to him were cut.
“I couldn’t discuss the price,” Tinkov told the New York Times. “It was like I was a hostage, you take what you’re offered. I couldn’t negotiate.”
Within days, a company linked to billionaire Vladimir Potanin bought the bank for what Tinkov said was just 3 percent of its real value.
Tinkov lost nearly $9 billion and fled Russia.
War economy boom
According to Forbes, the number of Russian billionaires fell sharply in the first year of the war. Between April 2021 and April 2022, their combined wealth dropped by $263 billion.
But the war economy soon reversed the trend. Lavish state spending pushed growth above 4 percent in 2023 and 2024.
“Anyone running a business in Russia needs to have a relationship with the government,” Giacomo Tognini of Forbes said.
By 2025, Russia had a record 140 billionaires, with total wealth close to pre-war highs.
Loyal by design
Sanctions also trapped the ultra-rich at home.
“The West has done everything possible to ensure that Russian billionaires will rally around the flag,” said Alexander Kolyandr of the Center for European Policy Analysis.
Alexandra Prokopenko of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center said the vacuum left by departing foreign companies created an “army of influential and active loyalists” whose fortunes now depend on continued confrontation with the West.
Sources: BBC, The New York Times, Forbes, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, CEPA, Digi24
