#81

Vladimir Potanin

Source of wealth: Metals

65 years Male Metals & Mining 🇷🇺 RU

Net Worth

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Earnings per second

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Biography

Vladimir Potanin acquired a stake in Norilsk Nickel during Russia's privatization in 1995; today he owns just over a third of the company.

Potanin served as deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin and maintains ties with President Vladimir Putin.

Potanin spent $2.5 billion developing Rosa Khutor, a ski resort, snowboard park and freestyle skiing center for the 2014 Olympics; he still has a stake in it.

In the spring of 2022, he bought Rosbank from Societe Generale, which stopped business in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, and 35% of Tinkoff Bank from its founder Oleg Tinkov.

Potanin and his Rosbank were sanctioned by U.S. in December 2022.

Potanin and his ex-wife continue to battle over assets in UK Court in what could be one of the biggest divorce settlements in history.

Perspective on their fortune

Gold

Everyday luxury

A Vladimir Potanin's fortune is equivalent to 200 of gold, but this may be difficult to value, as we don't usually have a handful of gold bars in our piggy bank.

A standard gold ring typically weighs between 4 and 7 grams. Let's say this one weighs 5 grams. It's usually 18k gold.

Based on today's gold price (not taking into account the jeweler's fee, shipping, or anything else), that gold ring would be worth $556.3

Vladimir Potanin could buy 53,460,907 gold rings. That's a lot of fingers and a lot of gifts!!

And if the number of rings is difficult to visualize, all these rings would need 10 trucks to transport them, But we can be almost certain that Vladimir Potanin will have enough left over to pay for the gas for those trucks.

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While billions of people struggle to access basic healthcare, education, and research, a single individual could fund entire national systems for centuries.

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Health

The price of life

Let's compare Vladimir Potanin's fortune with the healthcare spending of a huge country

Vladimir Potanin could fund the entire healthcare system of DR Congo with a population of over 105,800,000 of inhabitants for approximately 13.4 years.

But even if we compare their fortune to that of a rich country

At the other extreme, Vladimir Potanin could cover the health expenditure of Luxembourg, considered the world's most heavily invested health system, for 5.9 years

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Education

Buying the future

Lowest education spending

Vladimir Potanin could assume the entire cost of the education system of Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, with more than 243,000,000 inhabitants for 8.7 years.

Highest education spending

But not only could he assume the cost of a poor country, Luxembourg is considered the country with the highest per capita investment in education in the world, Vladimir Potanin could pay for it in full for 11.9 years.

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Research

The monopoly of progress

Lowest research spending

Vladimir Potanin could fully fund the state research budget of Pakistan, the fifth most populous country in the world with more than 260,000,000 of inhabitants, for 50.1 years.

Highest research spending

But even if we compare the total wealth of Vladimir Potanin with Israel, the country that currently invests the most per capita in research in the world, it could assume the total cost of the system for 1.1 years.