Vladimir Potanin

Vladimir Potanin acquired a stake in Norilsk Nickel during Russia's privatization in 1995; today he owns just over a third of the company.Potanin served as deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin and maintains ties with President Vladimir Putin. Potanin spent $2.5 billion developing Rosa Khutor, a ski resort, snowboard park and freestyle skiing center for the 2014 Olympics; he still has a stake in it. In February, 2021 Norilsk Nickel was fined $2 billion for the huge oil spill in Arctic. The company disputed the figure, estimating the cost was only $300 million.Following Russia's attack on Ukraine, he stepped down from the board of the Guggenheim Museum foundation, on which he served for two decades. In May 2021, the U.K. Court of Appeal overturned a lower court decision and allowed Potanin's ex-wife Natalia to bring her $6 billion divorce claim in London.