The Russian invasion of Ukraine led to a massive crash on the stock exchanges in Russia. The Moscow stock exchange MOEX closed down 33 percent on Thursday.
According to Bloomberg The 22 richest individuals in Russia lost a total of $ 39 billion in one day as a result of the stock market crash. This corresponds to a loss of NOK 350 billion.
Vladimir Potanin, Russia’s richest man, lost three billion dollars after the share price of the mining company Nornickel plunged 26 percent on Thursday.
The biggest blow had to be made by oil billionaire Vagit Alekperov. According to Bloomberg, his fortune plummeted from $ 19.2 billion to $ 13 billion. Alekperov lost a third of the fortune in paper value after the oil company Lukoil fell by 32 percent.
Putin met the billionaires
According to the Russian state news agency TASS, President Vladimir Putin gathered some of Russia’s top business leaders for a meeting on Thursday.
På møtet var minst 13 milliardærer, ifølge TASS: Vagit Alekperov, Pyotr Aven, Andrei Bokarev, Andrei Guriev, Mikhail Gutseriev, Suleiman Kerimov, Andrey Melnichenko, Leonid Mikhelson, Alexey Mordashov, Vadim Moshkovich, Vladimir Potanin, Dmitry Pumpyansky and Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
According to Forbes, referring to TASS, none of the billionaires countered Putin’s invasion. But they were probably not very happy that the Russian stock markets were in free fall for a long time on Thursday, which in turn meant that their fortunes were shaved off.
Russia has around 116 billionaires, according to Forbes. Their fortunes have fallen by nearly $ 90 billion in paper value since February 16th. This corresponds to NOK 807.3 billion.
The seas: Market reactions after the invasion: The Moscow Stock Exchange rises after the crash
Hit hard by sanctions
The stock markets in Moscow have admittedly risen sharply on Friday morning. But it could still get worse for Russian billionaires.
A number of Western countries have called for ruthless sanctions against Russian oligarchs and their families.
Boris Johnson and the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Putin’s friend Gennady Timchenko and brothers Igor and Boris Rotenberg. Five banks – Rossiya, IS Bank, Genbank, Promsvyazbank and Black Sea Bank – were also sanctioned, according to Reuters.
US President Joe Biden also took similar measures, imposing sanctions on four major Russian banks, as well as Russian billionaires.
“All the assets they have in the United States will be frozen,” Biden said.
The US sanctions also apply to Russia’s largest state-owned companies, which hold enormous assets.
– We want to limit Russia’s opportunities to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen, ie to be part of the world economy. We stop their opportunities to finance and contribute to the growth of the Russian military. We want to make it harder for them to compete in a high-tech economy in the 21st century, Biden said on Thursday.
The seas: EU with new tough sanctions against Russia: – We will do everything we can
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