Background and career
Vladimir Olegovich Potanin (Russian: Владимир Олегович Потанин; born 3 January 1961) is a Russian businessman, billionaire and statesman. He is the founder and president of Interros, which holds stakes in MMC Norilsk Nickel, Rosa Khutor, Rosbank, Yandex and TCS Group Holding. President of Norilsk Nickel, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the State Hermitage Museum, founder of the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation. Forbes twice ranked him as the richest person in Russia — in 2015 and 2020. And across the 2021–2026 interval, Potanin consistently remained within the top five Russian billionaires. In the 2026 Forbes ranking, Vladimir Potanin reasserted his position as the second-ranking Russian billionaire, a status he had not occupied since 2023. Globally, he was situated at rank 79. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index—dated 24 August 2026—Potanin is positioned third among Russian billionaires and 113th globally, with a recalibrated net worth of US$23.0 billion. The index records a year-to-date contraction of US$3.41 billion. Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have imposed sanctions on Potanin.
Potanin was born in Moscow, in the former USSR, into the family of a USSR trade representative in New Zealand. He resided with his parents in Turkey for several years, receiving his primary education there. He continued his studies at Moscow School No. 58, graduating with a gold medal. In 1978, he attended the faculty of the International economic relations at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), which is run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Upon graduating MGIMO in 1983, he followed in his father's footsteps and went to work for the all-union foreign trade organization (FTO) Soyuzpromexportfortvort, which was an arm of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. He served as senior engineer at the All-Union Foreign Economic Association (VFEA) "Soyuzpromexport".
During perestroika, Potanin quit the State's structures of Foreign trade and in 1990 created the private association Interros, which was engaged in foreign economic consulting, using his knowledge gathered at Ministry of Foreign trade and his previous professional network. From 1992 to 1993, Potanin served as vice president and subsequently president of the International Financial Company (MFK) bank, which he co-founded with Mikhail Prokhorov. In 1993, Potanin became president of the newly formed United Export Import Bank (ONEKSIMbank) (Russian: "ОНЭКСИМ-банк") (akas: Uneximbank; Onexim Bank; Oneksimbank). In 1995, Potanin was instrumental in the creation of the "loans for shares" auctions that became a pillar of Russia's post-Soviet economic reform. The auctions allowed the selling-off of Russian firms' assets at below market prices and are regarded as the founding moment of Russia's oligarchy. According to the New York Times, the auctions plan was regarded in 1999 "almost universally as an act of colossal criminality." At the same time, the work of Professor Daniel Treisman, published by the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), presents the following conclusion based on a retrospective analysis of Western publications and economic data: compared to state-owned companies sold to incumbent managers, the firms sold to oligarchs performed significantly better, contributing to Russia's rapid economic growth after 1999. Thus, the loans-for-shares program helped accelerate Russia's recovery. From 14 August 1996 until 17 March 1997, he worked as First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. During his tenure in the Russian government, he chaired approximately 20 federal, governmental, and interagency commissions, including the Government Commission on Financial and Monetary Policy, the Operational Commission under the Government of the Russian Federation for Improving the Payment and Settlement System, and the Interagency Commission of the Russian Federation for Cooperation with International Financial and Economic Organizations and the "Group of Seven". He served as the Russian Federation's Governor at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. In autumn 1997, Potanin established the Prof-Media CJSC holding company to manage all media assets owned by ONEXIM Bank, including Izvestia, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Afisha, and Bolshoy Gorod. In 1997, Boris Jordan introduced George Soros to Potanin which led to the Soros Group supported by Potanin, Anatoly Chubais, and Alfred Koch to have the controlling stake in the Russian communications monopoly over the Berezovsky-Gusinsky group. One year later Soros admitted that his large investment in Svyazinvest was a mistake. Since August 1998, Potanin has held the positions of both president and chairman of the board of directors of the Interros Company. On 25 November 1998, Potanin recommended Boris Jordan to be Chairman of Sidanko which Jordan held until February 1999 when he stepped down.
Interros is a Russian private investment company. Its projects span nearly all sectors of the Russian economy. The key asset of Interros is Norilsk Nickel - the world's largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel, and one of the major suppliers of platinum and copper. Another significant Interros project is the Rosa Khutor mountain resort in Sochi, which served as one of the main venues for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Its establishment contributed to the development of Russia's tourism industry. In 2022, Interros, at Vladimir Potanin's initiative, acquired a stake in Russian IT developer Reksoft. The company's clients include OK hypermarket chain, S7 Airlines, major airports, VTB and Otkritie banks, GLONASS, Gazprom Neft, and Russian Post. In April 2025, venture fund Voskhod, with Interros as its anchor investor, invested 1 billion rubles in New Diamond Technology (NDT), a company developing diamond wafers for the electronics industry. In May 2025, Catalytic People — a joint venture between Interros and T-Technology — acquired a 9.95% stake in PJSC Yandex.
Potanin and his long-term business partner Mikhail Prokhorov acquired Norilsk Nickel (or Nornickel) in the early 1990s under the "loans for shares" scheme, owning between them 54% of the firm. Potanin owned as of 2018 a 34% stake in the company. They streamlined operations and turned Norilsk Nickel into a modern corporation. In 2017–2018, under Potanin's leadership as president of Norilsk Nickel, the company launched both the Bystrinsky GOK mining and processing plant and the Sulfur Project. In 2022, Vladimir Potanin implemented several initiatives to enhance employee participation in the management and ownership structures of Norilsk Nickel and Rosbank. In the spring of 2024, representatives of Norilsk Nickel, headed by Potanin, announced the upcoming transfer of copper production from Russia to China. This plan was motivated both by the need to circumvent Western sanctions when exporting copper to foreign markets, and by China's significantly less stringent environmental standards than those in Russia. According to Potanin's representatives, further modernization of the existing outdated production to comply with Russian environmental standards turned out to be completely unprofitable for Norilsk Nickel, and the company preferred to carry out new construction in a country with less expensive environmental requirements.
Potanin also owned a stake in Petrovax Pharm, a pharmaceutical company during norties.
