Leonid Mikhelson is a Russian businessman who is worth a billion dollars. He is the CEO, chairman, and major shareholder of Novatek, a Russian gas company.
Mikhelson formed Novatek by purchasing a stake in a privatized pipeline construction company following the fall of the Soviet Union. He is a business partner of Gennady Timchenko, a Russian billionaire who is a close confidant of Vladimir Putin.
Leonid Mikhelson’s Net Worth and Wealth:
He was the 44th richest person in the world and the second richest person in Russia as of August 2022, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth was US$28.8 billion.
He is one of Russia’s wealthiest individuals. Additionally, he is ranked among Europe’s twenty richest men. You definitely want to know more about the story of the private gas company owner, which is very interesting. The circumstance is such that during the Soviet Union, Leonid Mikhelson worked for this gas company.
He once worked in upper management. However, Russia was surrounded by corruption from every direction when the Soviet Union fell apart. He took advantage of the fact that private players were getting cheap deals on expensive companies made by the Soviet Union. He bought the same company where he was only an employee and soon found himself among Europe’s richest men.
Leonid Mikhelson has also been honored with Russia’s Man of the Year Award in the past. After the Soviet was disbanded, he purchased the business and continued to profit from it, as we mentioned. Because of his good relationship with Putin, Vladimir has been featured in Western media. The fact that Russia is the world’s largest gas-producing nation and that his company contributes 11% to that nation indicates the size of his business.
Do you know?
- Novatek is a natural gas producer whose chairman and founder are Leonid Mikhelson.
- He increased his stake in the petrochemical company Sibur from 17% in 2017 when he purchased it from Putin’s alleged former son-in-law Kirill Shamalov, bringing it to 48%.
- Sibur merged with TAIF Group in 2021, which had a lot of assets in Tatarstan; The sons of the first president of Tatarstan are among the owners of TAIF.
- Gennady Timchenko, a sanctioned oligarch who is said to have close ties to President Vladimir Putin, is his partner in both Novatek and Sibur.
- Mikhelson worked as a foreman for a construction company in the Tyumen region of Russia at the beginning of his career.
