Background and career
Vagit Yusufovich Alekperov (Azerbaijani: Vahid Yusifoviç Ələkbərov, Russian: Вагит Юсуфович Алекперов; born 1 September 1950) is a Russian businessman of Azerbaijani origin and an oligarch. He was the president of the oil company Lukoil from 1993 until 2022. As of March 2026, according to the Forbes magazine, Alekperov has an estimated net worth of US$29.5 billion, making him the third-wealthiest person in Russia and the eighty-first in the world. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index—dated 24 August 2026—Alekperov is positioned fifth among Russian billionaires and 125th globally, with a net worth of US$21.0 billion. The index records a year-to-date contraction of US$1.63 billion. Alekperov previously owned a 36.8% stake in football club Spartak Moscow. Fellow former Spartak owner Leonid Fedun is Alekperov's close associate. Alekperov also owned superyacht builder Heesen Yachts until 2022. As part of the international governmental responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have imposed sanctions against Alekperov.
Alekperov was born on 1 September 1950, in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, one of the earliest centers of the international petroleum industry. His father, who died when Vagit was a boy, worked in the oilfields all his life and inspired Alekperov to follow in his footsteps. Alekperov's father was an Azerbaijani Muslim, and his mother was Russian Orthodox. Alekperov is religious, but does not define himself as either Muslim or Orthodox. In 1974, Alekperov graduated from the Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute with a Master of Science in Engineering.
Alekperov moved to Western Siberia in 1979 and worked at Surgutneftegaz between 1979 and 1985, earning his reputation as an industry expert. He was ascending positions and by 1985 became the first deputy general director of Bashneft production company. In 1987, he became general director of the newly created production company Kogalymneftegaz.
In 1990, Alekperov was appointed deputy minister of the Oil and Gas Industry of the Soviet Union and became the youngest deputy energy minister in Soviet history. At that time, Alekperov promoted the establishment of vertically integrated state-owned energy companies, which would bring together the wide range of organizations in the energy sector that were, at the time, reporting to different Soviet bureaucratic institutions. At this time, Western oil companies began actively seeking partners in Russia. During a visit to British Petroleum facilities in the United Kingdom in 1990, Alekperov personally headed the Russian delegation at the negotiations. Rondo Fehlberg, an executive at BP, told NY Times that Alekperov took control of the agenda during that 1990 trip, sternly asking the BP executives to explain how a modern oil company should be set up.
In April 1993, Langepas-Uray-Kogalymneft became the joint-stock company LUKOIL, and Alekperov became its president and chairman of the board. By 2002, Alekperov owned 10.4% of the company. In 2000, Alekperov resigned as head of the board of directors of Lukoil, but retained his position as president of the company. In May 2008, Alekperov bought 11.13 million shares (1.3%) in Lukoil, thereby increasing his stake to 20.4% and becoming the company's largest shareholder. LUKoil was the first Russian company to acquire an American company. In November 2000, LUKoil acquired Getty Petroleum Marketing and its 1,300 gas stations in the United States Like many other Russian oligarchs, Alekperov has also moved into banking and media. In May 2006 Alekperov was one of the two main owners of IFD Kapital Group. During at least three meetings in Turkey and London in 2014 and 2015, executives associated with Alekperov's firm Lukoil allegedly questioned persons at the Alexander Nix associated firms SCL Group, which is closely associated with Aleksandr Kogan, and Cambridge Analytica, which is closely associated with Steve Bannon, who supported Donald Trump's 2016 campaign for President of the United States, and Robert Mercer, who supported Ted Cruz's campaign for President of the United States, about how United States election data about American voters could be used to target them according to Christopher Wylie. In 2018, Alekperov first mentioned in an interview that he was looking for a successor to his position, stating that a staff reshuffle could take place at the company in 2023. Alekperov is on the 2017 list of Russian "oligarchs" named in the CAATSA unclassified report to the U.S. Congress.
In April 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Alekperov was sanctioned by Australia and the United Kingdom. On 21 April, Lukoil issued a statement saying that Alekperov had stepped down and resigned from the board of directors after 29 years. In May 2022, Canada also imposed sanctions on Alekperov. In October 2022, New Zealand sanctioned Alekperov.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
