Background and career
Dmitry Arkadievich Mazepin (Belarusian: Дзмітрый Мазепін; Russian: Дмитрий Аркадьевич Мазепин; born 18 April 1968) is a Belarusian-Russian oligarch and businessman. He is the former owner and former CEO of Uralchem. As of March 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Dmitry Mazepin has been sanctioned by both the European Union and the United Kingdom. Mazepin has been listed by Forbes magazine among Russia's 200 wealthiest businesspeople. In 2021, his fortune was estimated at $800 million.
Dmitry Mazepin was born on 18 April 1968 in Minsk. He graduated from the Suvorov Military Academy in Minsk in 1985 and subsequently served as a military interpreter in Afghanistan between 1986 and 1988. In 1992, he graduated from the Department of Economics at MGIMO University, after which he entered the financial sector in Russia and Belarus. He later held executive positions at major Russian private and state‑controlled companies, among them Nizhnevartovskneftegaz and Sibur. In 2008, he obtained a first‑tier university degree in Organization Management from the Institute for Economics and Management in Saint Petersburg. He earned a PhD from the same institution in 2012, having defended a thesis on the development of a methodical approach to managing the stock‑market potential of an oil‑producing company.
Mazepin served as CEO of Infistrakh, an insurance company, from 1992 to 1993. For the following two years he held the post of deputy branch manager at Belarusbank, before taking up a number of executive positions at Falkon Bank in 1995. His first major corporate appointment came in 1997, when he was named vice‑president of TNK, the Tyumen Oil Company. TNK had just acquired Nizhnevartovskneftegaz as a subsidiary, and Mazepin was appointed its executive director with a mandate to return the firm to profitability. In a 2009 interview, he stated that he had ultimately succeeded in making Nizhnevartovskneftegaz loss‑free. Thereafter, Mazepin served as Deputy President of the Board of Flora Moscow Bank between 1998 and 1999, acted as CEO of the coal producer Kuzbassugol, and was subsequently appointed First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federal Property Fund in 2002.
Mazepin was appointed president of Sibur, a subsidiary of the major gas producer Gazprom, in 2002, and held the position until 2003. He was invited to take up the role in order to replace Yakov Goldovsky, who had been arrested for illegally removing assets belonging to Gazprom from the company. Mazepin was tasked with returning those assets to Gazprom's operational control and with stabilising what was, at the time, a deeply indebted business. The company underwent extensive technical audits in order to bring idle capacity back into production, and a number of issues affecting worker welfare—including pay arrears and housing conditions—were resolved. Mazepin also sought to diversify Sibur's revenue base, signing a memorandum of understanding on gas processing with Sibneft in 2003. In 2004, after leaving Sibur, Mazepin established his own company in the sector. Constructive Bureau, a firm controlled by Mazepin, acquired a majority stake in the Kirovo‑Chepetsk Chemicals Plant at a public auction, outbidding Gazprom. Mazepin became chairman of the board of the plant in 2005. Constructive Bureau subsequently acquired stakes in the Perm‑based joint‑stock companies Halogen and Minudobrenia, Berezniki Azot, and the Volgograd‑based Khimprom (transferred to Renova in 2006).
In 2007, all the assets under Mazepin's control were consolidated to form Uralchem United Chemicals Company, a public joint‑stock company, and Mazepin became chairman of the board of directors of Uralchem. In June 2008, Mazepin acquired a 75.01 per cent stake in Voskresensk Mineral Fertilizers, an interest he raised to 100 per cent in 2011. That same year, he combined the production facilities of the Kirovo‑Chepetsk Plant and Perm Halogen into Halopolymer, a public joint‑stock company, from whose board he resigned in 2015. The company's principal production assets include the Azot branch in Berezniki, the Perm Mineral Fertilizers branch in Perm, the Kirovo‑Chepetsk Chemical Plant branch in Kirovo‑Chepetsk, and Voskresensk Mineral Fertilizers in the Moscow region. In December 2013, Mazepin purchased a 20 per cent stake in Uralkali, the world's largest potash producer, in a transaction valued at approximately $2.9 billion. The acquisition was financed by a $4.5 billion loan from VTB. A month earlier, Mikhail Prokhorov had also acquired a 21.75 per cent stake in the company from Suleiman Kerimov. Mazepin assumed operating control of Uralkali at that time, winning a seat on the company's board of directors in March 2014. He also served as deputy chairman of the board of directors of Uralkali from 2014. As part of his strategy for business development, Mazepin sought to introduce both companies to African markets. Uralchem and Uralkali have held discussions with a number of African countries aimed at increasing production and constructing new plants on the continent. In December 2018, against a background of improving relations between Russia and Kenya, Mazepin met Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta to discuss new business deals. In 2018, Mazepin also met Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zambia's President Edgar Lungu. Zimbabwe and Zambia are expected to become important hubs for fertiliser production as global demand continues to rise. Mazepin met Angola's president João Lourenço in March 2019 to discuss the possible construction of a urea plant in the country with a capacity of 1 million tonnes per year. At the Russia–Africa International Forum held in October 2019, he met Emmerson Mnangagwa and Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi in order to reaffirm Uralchem's interest in investing in mineral fertiliser production in Zimbabwe, noting that the company is already supplying fertilisers to Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya and Angola, and was commencing deliveries to Mozambique. In March 2022, Dmitry Mazepin reduced his stake in Uralchem to 48 per cent, a level that falls below a controlling interest, and stepped down as CEO of the company. In October 2024, Mazepin was appointed head of the Russian Aquatics Federation, a body that unifies the former Russian Swimming Federation, the Russian Synchronized Swimming Federation, the Russian Water Polo Federation, and the Russian Diving Federation.
In 2013, Forbes listed Mazepin among the most charitable Russian billionaires. According to Forbes and Ria Novosti, in 2012 Mazepin directed $700,000 to charitable causes, most of which went towards a project that purchases cars for large low‑income families in the Kirov region. Through Uralchem, Mazepin supports a range of charitable activities, among them social programmes for children and veterans, regional development initiatives, education and science programmes, and projects promoting culture and sport.
