Top four on Forbes Russia billionaires list made their fortunes in the Arctic

If the Forbes list published on Wednesday is any indication of how businesses are developing in Russia’s Arctic region, the outlook is not entirely bleak. The reality is, of course, more complex, but the list nevertheless highlights how vital Arctic resources remain to the country’s economy.

Steel tycoon Aleksey Mordashov and his family top the ranking for 2026, with a net worth of $37 billion — up $8.4 billion from 2025. Mordashov is co-owner of Severstal, Russia’s leading steel and iron-ore mining company. The Olenegorsk Mining and Processing Plant (Olkon) on the Kola Peninsula produces iron-ore concentrate for Severstal’s steel operations.

According to Forbes, Mordashov became the first Russian billionaire whose fortune exceeded $30 billion.

In February–March 2022, the European Union and the United Kingdom added Mordashov to their sanctions lists. In June 2022, the businessman and members of his family were also sanctioned by the United States.

Number two on the list is well known to readers of the Barents Observer: mega-polluter Vladimir Potanin.

Potanin built his wealth by operating the Norilsk Nickel mining and metallurgical combine, a company with operations in Zapolyarny and Monchegorsk on the Kola Peninsula as well as in Talnakh and Norilsk on the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia. The factories are the biggest air polluters in the Arctic, with massive emissions of sulphur dioxide and heavy metals over the fragile taiga and tundra environment.

By the start of 2026, Vladimir Potanin had a net worth of $29.7 billion, up $5.5 billion from last year. The increase alone means his wealth grew by about $627,854 every hour throughout the year.

Potanin has been sanctioned by the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. In 2024, the Barents Observer reported that Potanin planned to move part of his copper smelting operation from Norilsk to China in order to circumvent sanctions.

Vagit Alekperov ranks third on the Forbes Russia list with a net worth of $29.5 billion. Alekperov founded what later became Russia’s largest private oil company, Lukoil. However, he resigned as president of Lukoil only a few days after the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on him in 2022.

In the Arctic, Lukoil operates several oil fields on the tundra in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Komi Republic, including the oil refinery in Ukhta that was hit by Ukrainian drones in mid-February.

Fourth on the list are Leonid Mikhelson and his family. He owns about 25 per cent of Russia’s largest private natural gas producer, Novatek. The company operates Yamal LNG, supplying liquefied natural gas to global markets with tankers sailing both east and west along the Northern Sea Route.

Novatek has also built the Kola Yard north of Murmansk, a huge barge construction site aimed at supplying the company’s Arctic LNG projects in Gydan on the coast of the Taymyr Peninsula. However, the plant stopped production after the United States imposed sanctions on it in November 2024.

Seventy-year-old Mikhelson and his family have a net worth of $28.3 billion.

Several other people among Russia’s 155 billionaires have also earned large portions of their wealth from businesses in the Arctic.

Gennady Timchenko also holds a stake in Novatek, as well as in other oil and gas producers. Timchenko is listed as number seven with a net worth of $24.2 billion, up $1 billion from 2025.

Number eight on the Forbes Russia list is Andrey Melnichenko and his family. Melnichenko owns coal mines, infrastructure and mineral fertiliser plants in the Arctic. His company EuroChem operates the mine and processing plant in Kovdor on the Kola Peninsula.

This oligarch is considered one of the most influential businesspeople in Vladimir Putin’s circle and was sanctioned by the European Union in 2022. His company, however, continues to trade with international partners, including some in the EU.

Melnichenko is also known as the owner of the world’s largest sailing yacht, the eight-deck “A”. The yacht’s masts are taller than the Hotel Azimut (Arktika), the tallest building in Murmansk. The yacht, though, is no longer in available for him since Italian police confiscated the vessel in 2022 as part of the Western crackdown on wealthy oligarchs linked to dictator Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The combined net worth of all 155 Russian billionaires was estimated by Forbes at $695.5 billion. Only five on the list are women: 

Tatyana Kim – founder of the Wildberries e-commerce platform; the richest woman in Russia with several billion dollars.

Elena Baturina – founder of Inteco, She was for a long time the richest Russian woman.

Lyudmila Kogan – shareholder in Uralsib bank.

Ekaterina Fedun – shareholder connected to the oil company Lukoil.

Tatiana Volodina – owner of cosmetics retailer networks L’Etoile and Podruka.