Everything what we know about Vladimir Putin's hidden fortune

Despite the sanctions imposed by the West, Russian oligarchs are still getting richer. This is mainly thanks to the increase in the prices of raw materials coming from Russia, which they control.

According to estimations by Forbes, the combined fortunes of the billionaires in Russia would have increased between 2022 and 2023 to 152 billion US dollars. This would reach a total of more than 500 billion. And the trend does not seem to be stopping anytime soon.

Russia is once again among the 100 club, countries with more than 100 billionaires, with the number expected to reach 110 by 2022. The fall in wealth following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine was followed by a rapid recovery.

Also according to Forbes, the richest man in Russia in 2022 was Andrey Melnichenko, who made his fortune in fertilizers and whose total wealth was valued at more than 25 billion US dollars at that time.

He was followed by Vladimir Potanin, a close friend of Vladimir Putin who is an active participant in the metallurgy industry and who bought the Russian subsidiary of Société Générale at a cut-rate price.

What about Vladimir Putin? While the Russian president claims to have a modest lifestyle, some investigations into his assets show that the reality is quite different.

In his tax declaration before the 2024 presidential election, reported by Ouest-France , the Russian leader claimed to have earned less than 780,000 US dollars over the past six years. This would add salaries, pensions, and bank deposits, but also through the sale of several properties.

The Russian leader declared that he has 54.5 million rubles (about 585,000 US dollars), spread across ten bank accounts in Russia, as well as 230 shares of PJSC Bank in St. Petersburg.

Furthermore, Vladimir Putin officially owns a 77 square meter apartment and an 18 square meter garage in Saint Petersburg, as well as four vehicles, including… a motor home dating from 1987!

However, several investigations have reported the immense hidden fortune of the lonely man in the Kremlin, unrelated to the modest lifestyle that he purposely displays.

A documentary made by his main opponent, Alexei Navalny, who died last February, mentioned a luxurious secluded villa on the Black Sea in the middle of an estate of over 17,000 acres.

40 times the size of Monaco, the not-so-humble abode was valued at around one billion US dollars. An amount that far exceeds what the Russian president claims to save on his salary.

In early 2024, the independent media outlet The Moscow Times also mentioned another gigantic estate owned by Putin near the Finnish border.

It would be a “one square kilometer property that would house a residence, two heliports, a trout farm, several yacht ports, a farm with cows for the production of marbled beef, as well as a private waterfall,” reports the French media outlet Ouest-France.

In 2012, a report co-written by former opposition figure Boris Nemtsov (assassinated in 2015) cited “20 luxurious homes and palaces, 15 helicopters, 43 private jets, a fleet of yachts and a watch collection,” Capital reports. These numbers haven't been able to be verified.

According to Bill Browder, CEO of asset management firm Hermitage Capital Management, quoted by Capital , Vladimir Putin has a colossal fortune, estimated at around $200 billion, which would make him one of the richest men in the world.

"It is very difficult to list all of his assets, because they are spread across a labyrinth of shell companies, real estate and other people's accounts," explain Yvonnick Denoël and Gildas Java, the authors of the comic strip "La fortune de Poutine" (Nouveau Monde Éditions), quoted by Jeune Afrique.

“We are talking about a sprawling structure, full of front men, bearer shares and offshore companies,” wrote Le Figaro in 2019.

“He has nothing to his name, everything goes through frontmen, most often these oligarchs close to him. The rule is that they pay him 50% of their wealth”, Bill Browder told the Journal du Dimanche in 2021.

In 2022, an investigation carried out by a consortium of journalists highlighted, thanks to data leaks, the links between Vladimir Putin and 86 companies or foundations in very diverse fields, for a total estimated at 4.5 billion euros.

“This money does not stay in Russia but rests in Switzerland, in Europe, in the United States,” says Bill Browder, quoted by Ouest-France.

How did the former KGB agent turned head of state amass such an enormous fortune? He is said to have gradually acquired control over the oligarchs who took advantage of the privatizations of the post-Soviet era to enrich themselves.

“Having become president in 2000, the current lord of the Kremlin has, year after year, charged for his protection, with each of his cronies having to pay commissions and reserve a portion of their fortune for him,” analyses Jeune Afrique.

In 2003, Vladimir Putin arrested Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the head of the Yukos oil company, then Russia's richest man and a strong critic of the government.

He then allegedly “blackmailed the country's other oligarchs, forcing them to personally give him shares in the country's major companies if they did not want to suffer the same fate,” reports Capital.

“Putin easily qualifies for the title of greatest economic predator in history,” conclude Yvonnick Denoël and Gildas Java. His fortune is as impressive as the means used to acquire and maintain it are questionable!

Never miss a story! Click here to follow The Daily Digest.