A group of Russian billionaires has become about 7.5 billion richer thanks to the reopening of the stock exchange. The group also includes a businessman from the circles surrounding Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is on the sanctions lists of Western powers.
The Russian central bank allowed trading on the Moscow stock exchange after a weeks-long suspension on Thursday, albeit with severe restrictions. The main index then rose, which at one point even stood at a 12 percent gain. However, it should be noted that trading in shares of only 33 companies was allowed.
Ten Russians who are on the list of the richest 500 people in the world by Bloomberg news agency have shares in those companies. As a result, they made a hefty paper profit, which amounted to about 1 billion euros for nickel magnate Vladimir Potanin, oil tycoon Leonid Michelson and Putin confidant Gennadi Timchenko.
The latter businessman, who became very wealthy with the commodity trading company Gunvor, has been subject to sanctions imposed by the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States to affect his assets. However, Potanin and Michelson are not yet on sanctions lists.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, companies on the Russian stock exchange decreased significantly. On the first day of the war, February 24, the MOEX index already fell 33 percent. Just before stock trading in Moscow was halted, the 23 Russian billionaires from Bloomberg’s rich list saw a total of almost 53 billion euros of their assets on the stock exchange.