Recently Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Putin’s most implacable enemy, goes on trial in Russia for corruption, accused of stealing millions of dollars from Russia’s state airline, Aeroflot. If convicted, the former mathematics professor faces 10 years in jail. But he was not in court to face his accusers, and will not be there to hear the verdict weeks from now. Berezovsky has dismissed the case as a Kremlin show trial and has said he won’t turn up.
The charges against Berezovsky have their origins in the 1990s, when a small, well-connected group of entrepreneurs made a killing from the privatisation of Russia’s state assets. But what happened to the rest of them? A survey of the oligarchs, as they have become known, reveals an intriguing picture. Most of the first wave are now in prison or in exile, including Berezovsky, who has lived in Britain since 2001, the year he fell out with Putin, and has enjoyed asylum since 2003. Only a handful have managed to succeed under both Boris Yeltsin and Putin, his successor.
During his time in office, Putin has established a new law: leave politics to the Kremlin. Or else.
Roman Abramovich (40)
Who is he? Russia’s richest tycoon. Abramovich’s fortune is estimated at a whopping $19,2-billion, according to Forbes’ 2007 list of Russia’s top 100 businessmen (which reckons that there are 52 other Russian billionaires).
Shy, media-phobic and with still- boyish features, Abramovich has managed to navigate the transition between the Yeltsin and Putin eras. He has maintained good relations with both Kremlins. He has thus hung on to his fortune, acquired in the 1990s when he was an oil trader. He has also adopted the new Putin-era mantra of social responsibility, ploughing millions back into Chukotka, a province in Russia’s frozen far east. Abramovich is still the governor there, despite several attempts to resign.
Relationship with Putin: Chummy. During a recent one-on-one meeting in the Kremlin, the president told Abramovich that he had to soldier on as Chukotka’s governor. Wisely, Abramovich agreed.
Place of residence: Knightsbridge, London, and a 180ha estate in Fyning Hill, southern England.
How he got his money: In the 1990s Abramovich and his fellow oligarchs took advantage of the privatisation of Russia’s state assets. In 1995 he hit the big time — when he, together with Berezovsky, acquired a controlling interest in a large oil company, Sibneft. Critics say the company was worth billions more than the pair paid for it. The bidding process was rigged, they add. By 2001, Abramovich’s empire included not just Sibneft, but stakes in Aeroflot, aluminium, insurance, cars and hydroelectrics. He has sold many of his Russian assets.
Prospects: Good. Abramovich is likely to maintain good relations with Putin’s successor, while continuing his oxymoronic dual identity as London-based emigré and Russian patriot.
Oleg Deripaska (39)
Who is he? According to Finans magazine, Deripaska is now Russia’s richest man, with a fortune estimated at $21,2-billion. Forbes puts him in second place with $16,8-billion.
Deripaska grew up in the north Caucasus and studied in Moscow. He began work in the early 1990s as a metal trader. Beginning with a small stake in a Siberian smelting factory, Deripaska seized control of Russia’s vast, lucrative aluminium industry, merging his company in 2000 with Abramovich’s.
His firm — Basic Element — is due to float on the London Stock Exchange for $25-billion to $30-billion. Deripaska likes London, speaks English and is a keen Anglophile. He has no plans to leave Russia.
Relationship with Putin: Very close. The two ski together, it is said. Putin took Deripaska with him on a trip to Austria in May.
Place of residence: Moscow and the North Caucasus. He also has a small London pad.
How he got his money: By emerging like a triumphant gladiator from the ”aluminium wars”, the battle in the 1990s for control of Russia’s aluminium industry. Deripaska denies tales that at one point the local mafia tried to blow him up with a grenade launcher. But even among oligarchs Deripaska has a reputation for ruthlessness.
Prospects: Excellent. Deripaska is, in the words of one observer, ”untouchable”, thanks to his dynastic alliance with the Yeltsin family and his friendship with Putin. He is now aggressively expanding his empire into property and construction, and has also bought the ailing British van maker LDV.
Boris Berezovsky (61)
Who is he? Brainy former mathematics professor and former Kremlin kingmaker who has morphed into Putin’s enemy number one. On Tuesday Russia charged the exiled tycoon and Kremlin critic with conspiring to seize power on the basis of an interview he gave to The Guardian in April calling for a violent uprising against the Russian state. It has repeatedly called for his extradition from Britain, where he has lived since 2001. Berezovsky’s unrivalled ability to get close to those in power led him to penetrate Yeltsin’s family circle. He then used his political connections to acquire profitable stakes in state companies. They included a car dealership, the national airline Aeroflot, and several oil companies that he organised into Sibneft. His fortune is estimated at $1,1-billion.
Relationship with Putin: A bit like that between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, though without the touching family reconciliation death scene. (Putin is Luke). Britain’s refusal to hand over Berezovksy to Moscow continues to irritate the Kremlin and poison UK- British relations.
Place of residence: A mansion on the Wentworth estate, just outside London, plus a house and a vast apartment in the capital.
How he got his money: Berezovsky was a beneficiary of the series of sweetheart privatisation deals that saw state assets flogged off in the 1990s. His share of the swag was Sib- neft, which he got for a whisker over $100-million. Its value was later estimated at $1-billion. Berezovsky masterminded the 1996 re-election of Yeltsin.
Prospects: Surprisingly good. In the wake of the horrible murder of his associate Alexander Litvinenko — allegedly killed by a former KGB agent — no British court is likely to send Berezovsky back to Russia.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky (44)
Who is he? The man who defied Putin and ended up in a Siberian jail. One of the original ”magnificent seven”, the group of oligarchs who swaggeringly bestrode the Yeltsin era, Khodor-kovsky acquired his spectacular fortune during the privatisation of state assets in the 1990s. While Abramovich got oil, Khodorkovsky got oil, too — lots of it — with his firm Yukos becoming Russia’s biggest oil company.
But, Khodorkovsky broke the rules established by Putin: don’t meddle in politics. In 2003 he funded opposition political parties ahead of Duma elections. The Kremlin’s response was blunt. It charged Khodorkovsky with tax evasion and fraud. A court sentenced him to eight years in jail; receivers broke up his Yukos empire and sold off the bits.
He is unlikely to get out of jail any time soon. Once Russia’s richest man, he has seen his fortune dwindle to a paltry $500-million, Forbes suggests.
Relation with Putin: Not good. See place of residence.
Place of residence: Prison camp number 13, Chita jail, eastern Siberia. It’s a very long way away from Moscow.
How he got his money: According to the Kremlin, he nicked it. Like the others, Khodorkovsky exploited Russia’s Yeltsin-era privatisations. An ambitious middleÂÂ-class Soviet kid, Khodorkovsky began buying and selling in the late 1980s. He founded his own bank, Menatap, then in 1995 bought Yukos for $350-million. Two years later the firm was valued at $9-billion. The deal was part of the notorious loans-for-shares programme, which saw Yeltsin give away state assets to a small group of 23 or so oligarchs. In return, they agreed to get Boris re-elected as president in the face of a resurgent Communist party.
Prospects: Rubbish. Khodorkovsky now faces the prospect of a second trial on further charges of embezzlement and money laundering. The latest charges appear designed to ensure that the tycoon stays in prison until well after Putin departs office next year.
Mikhail Prokhorov (42)
Who is he? Russia’s most eligible bachelor, with a snappy little fortune of $15-billion. His playboy reputation was cemented in February when French police arrested him during an investigation into an international prostitution ring.
Prokhorov is Russia’s fifth richest man. His billions were made from the vast nickel and gold deposits hacked out of Russia’s frozen north. His mine in the town of Norilsk was privatised in Russia’s anarchic 1990s.
Relationship with Putin: Worsening? Putin last year awarded him the Order of Friendship — a token of Kremlin esteem. But his arrest in January may have led to a cooling.
Place of residence: Moscow, and (sometimes) the Alps.
How he made his money: Prokhorov was a clever young banker working for the state-run International Bank of International Cooperation when Vladimir Potanin, an influential banker from a privileged Soviet background, talent-spotted him. The two men moved into private banking, got their mitts on several billion-dollar government accounts, and never looked back. In November 1995 Potanin and Prokhorov snapped up Norilsk Nickel, Russia’s largest nickel company. Months later, Potanin had become deputy prime minister.
Prospects: Good, assuming he watches his step on the pistes.
Viktor Vekselberg (50)
Who is he? Putin-friendly oligarch, and Russia’s 10th richest chap, with a fortune estimated at $10,7-billion. Vekselberg made a killing when the aluminium industry was privatised. He became a major player after Yeltsin’s re-election in 1996, when he became co-owner and chairperson of Tyumen Oil (TNK), one of Russia’s largest oil and gas companies. His company later developed a joint venture with BP.
Vekselberg realises the importance of patriotic gestures. In 2004 he bought nine of the legendary Fabergé eggs from the US Forbes publishing family in New York and brought them to Moscow. He is currently restructuring his assets, which also include aluminium and property.
Relationship with Putin: Mixed. Putin invited Vekselberg on his trip to Austria and Luxembourg in May — a good sign. But he also recently criticised Vekselberg and TNK-BP for failing to develop a gasfield in eastern Siberia. TNK-BP was forced to sell it to Gazprom.
Place of residence: Moscow.
How he made his money: He got rich when Russia’s aluminium industry was privatised. His Siberian and Ural aluminium company (SUAL) has just merged with Deripaska’s company RusAl to create the world’s biggest aluminium company.
Prospects: Good. Vekselberg still enjoys reasonable relations with the man who counts, and heads the influential Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
Mikhail Friedman (43)
Who is he? Wheeler-dealer from western Ukraine and Russia’s sixth richest man. (According to Forbes, there is $13,5-billion in his piggy bank). Friedman grew up in Lvov, and was once a communist youth activist. Having learned how to run a business buying and selling theatre tickets, he set up a kooperativ — selling windows, importing photocopiers and cultivating bureaucrats. He then moved on to banking, buying large stakes in Russian firms and selling them on at a profit. In 2003 he merged his giant oil firm TNK with BP in a $7-billion deal.
Friedman is also the head of Russia’s powerful Alfa Bank.
Relationship with Putin: Unclear, but may be getting a bit wobbly. See prospects.
Place of residence: Moscow.
How he got his money: His breakthrough came when he started exporting oil — much cheaper in the Soviet Union than in the West.
Prospects: Slightly ominous. Friedman’s name popped up on a bunch of signs waved by demonstrators at an anti-Putin rally in St Petersburg — not a good omen. Additionally, officials are now investigating claims that he illegally purchased his mega-dacha — a bad sign. — Â