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Apparently Vladimir Potanin is still not sanctioned by the United States or the EU, and Norilsk Nickel is apparently only sanctioned by Canada and Australia in conjunction with Potanin.

“Potanin said on Tuesday that Nornickel is not under sanctions, despite the penalties imposed against him by the UK. The billionaire also indicated that he is not going to step down as Nornickel chief executive officer.” See: “Russia Tycoon Potanin Agrees to Nornickel-Rusal Merger Talks” Bloomberg News July 5, 2022 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-05/russian-tycoon-potanin-ready-to-discuss-nornickel-rusal-merger

“UK imposes sanctions against ‘Nickel King’, Russia’s second richest person: Vladimir Potanin latest oligarch to be subjected to sanctions as ministers target ‘Putin’s inner circle’” By Rupert Neate and Jasper Jolly Wed 29 Jun 2022 14.31 BST https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/29/vladimir-potanin-uk-sanctions-nickel-king-russia-putin

Potanin recently stepped down from the Global Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations: “Vladimir Potanin, considered Russia’s wealthiest oligarch, successfully donated to multiple significant U.S. nonprofits, including the Kennedy Center and Guggenheim Museum. And he didn’t stop at donations: Potanin managed to obtain seats on the Guggenheim’s board of trustees and the global advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank. All of this transpired despite Potanin’s “close” relationship with Putin and the fact that, as author David Hoffman describes in his groundbreaking 2011 book, The Oligarchs, Potanin acted as the “ringleader” for the oligarchs as they seized assets and political power in the mid-1990s. (Potanin resigned from both the Guggenheim and the Council on Foreign Relations this month.)” (“How Russia’s Oligarchs Laundered Their Reputations in the West Sanctions haven’t touched their face-saving philanthropy.” By Casey Michel, April 1, 2022 https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/04/will-oligarchs-reputation-laundering-face-a-reckoning.html )

Vladimir Potanin “was born in 1961 into a high-ranking Communist family. He attended the Moscow Institute for International Relations, an elite school that groomed students for the KGB and offices of the Kremlin. He then went to work for the Soviet Department of Trade, where his father had also worked. In 1991, he created Interros, a foreign trade association that traded nonferrous metals, including aluminum, copper and lead. With the capital he accumulated from Interros, he started two banks, the Oneximbank and the MFK, to which many state enterprises transferred their accounts. Later, Potanin became one of the principal authors of the Loans for Shares program, in which the Russian government traded ownership in state industries for loans….” https://web.archive.org/web/20220418171133/https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/moscow/potanin.html


“Norilsk. This industrial city of 175,000 people in northern Siberia has several mines that tap into one of the largest nickel, copper, platinum, and palladium deposits on Earth. And all of the smelting—the extraction of usable metal from ore by grinding it up and melting it—that happens there has made it into one of the largest sources of sulfur dioxide detectable by satellites…

In the natural-color image above, browning vegetation around the city is visible northwest and southeast of the city. A bright pollution plume rich with sulfur dioxide drifted from a large smelting facility southwest of the city. The red color of the water of the tailings pond likely relates to nearby mining or smelting activities. The image was acquired on July 12, 2017, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat…” https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/92246/a-manmade-volcano-over-norilsk

“Vladimir Olegovich Potanin is a Russian businessman and politician. He acquired his wealth notably through the controversial loans-for-shares program in Russia in the early to mid-1990s,[1] when the country’s national fortune was looted. Being a creator of the program as Deputy Prime Minister, he secured himself its most lucrative part, the mining complex Norilsk Nickel.

He is the second wealthiest man in Russia and the 10th richest person in the world,[2] with an estimated net worth of $87 billion.[2] His long-term business partner was Mikhail Prokhorov until they decided to split in 2007. Subsequently, they put their mutual assets in a holding company, Folletina Trading, until their asset division was agreed upon.[3]

As part of an effort to integrate the new Russian rulers, he was selected as a Global Leaders for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 1997. He is on the Global Board of Advisors of the might US think tank Council on Foreign Relations. He is part of the Bill Gates’ billionaire network The Giving Pledge.

Early life and education

Potanin was born in Moscow, in the former USSR, into a high-ranking communist family.[4] In 1978, he attended the faculty of the International economic relations at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), which groomed students for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Upon graduating MGIMO in 1983, he followed in his father’s footsteps and went to work for the FTO “Soyuzpromexport” with the Ministry of Foreign trade of the Soviet Union.[5][6]

Beginnings (1991–1998)

During perestroika, Potanin quit the State’s structures of Foreign trade and in 1991 created the private association Interros using his knowledge gathered at Ministry of Foreign trade and his previous professional network. In 1993, Potanin became President of the newly formed United Export Import Bank (ONEKSIMbank).[7][8] Oneksimbank is the financial twin of MFK and was also known as the ONEKSIMbank-MFK banking group which was also close to Andrey Vavilov.[9][10]

Potanin is a close supporter of Anatoly Chubais who introduced Potanin to Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.[11]

In 1995, Potanin was instrumental in the creation of the “loans for shares” auctions that became a fundamental pillar of Russia’s post-Soviet economic change.[12] The auctions allowed the selling-off of Russian firms’ assets at below market prices and are regarded as the founding moment of Russia’s oligarchy.[13][14]

From 14 August 1996 until 17 March 1997, he worked as First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

In 1997, Boris Jordan introduced George Soros to Potanin which led to the Soros Group supported by Potanin, Anatoly Chubais, and Alfred Koch to have the controlling stake in the Russian communications monopoly over the Berezovsky-Gusinsky group.[15]

Since August 1998, Potanin has held the positions of both President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Interros Company.[16]

On November 25, 1998, Potanin recommended Boris Jordan to be Chairman of Sidanko which Jordan held until February 1999 when he stepped down.[17]

References
1. ↑ https://www.ft.com/content/4b9a2a56-7826-11e0-b90e-00144feabdc0#axzz3p6quuqKg
2. ↑ Jump up to: 
a b https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/vladimir-potanin/
3. ↑ http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/potanin-sues-prokhorov-over-office/376814.html
4. ↑ https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/moscow/potanin.html
5. ↑ http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/public-servant-private-empire/319468.html
6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20001209071500/http://www.flb.ru:80/potanin/12.html
7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20180327084420/https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=6544746&privcapId=2421202
8. ↑ Объединенный экспортно-импортный банк “ОНЭКСИМ-банк”: аналитический обзор 1997 год
9. ↑ “Справка Сорокина” о залоговых аукционах 1995 года и их последствиях: Методы и последствия приватизации “Норильского никеля”
10. ↑ “Умный, хваткий, с авантюрной жилкой”
11. ↑ Объединенный экспортно-импортный банк “ОНЭКСИМ-банк”: аналитический обзор 1997 год
12. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/15/magazine/the-russian-devolution.html
13. ↑ https://www.ft.com/content/fa162fc2-0f3a-11df-8a19-00144feabdc0
14. ↑ {https://www.rferl.org/a/1061761.html
15. ↑ Тихий американец или 5 российских скандалов из жизни Бориса Йордана
16. ↑ http://www.interros.ru/en/team/potanin/#.ViYxu9aprzI
17. ↑ Йордан Борис Алексеевич (“Панорама”)
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