Crisis gives Russia new richest man

On Monday Finans magazine published a list of Russia's richest people. Vladimir Lisin replaced Mikhail Prokhorov at the top spot.
Vladimir Lisin, the owner of NLMK Novolipetsk Steel was named the richest man in Russia with $18.8 billion. The head of Onexim Mikhail Prokhorov was the second with $17.85 billion. Roman Abramovich, the head of Chukotka regional assembly, the owner of the biggest yacht in the world and Chelsea football club, came third with $17 billion.
The Top Ten of the list included senator Suleyman Kerimov (4th place, $14.5 billion), owner of Alpha-Group Mikhail Fridman (5th place, $14.3 billion), owner of Basic Element Oleg Deripaska (6th place, $13.8 billion), Metalloinvest founder Alisher Usmanov (7th place, $12.4 billion), LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov (8th place, $10.65 billion), Severstal owner Alexey Mordashov (9th place, $10 billion) and Interros President Vladimir Potanin (10th place, $9.95 billion). Most of the names in the Top Ten came from oil, metal and finance sectors.
The list contains 500 names of businessmen whose wealth exceeds 3.3 billion roubles (about $100 million). It has 77 dollar billionaires, up from last year's 49. The joint capital of the Top Ten has nearly doubled since last year to $139.3 billion from $ 75.9 billion. Finans magazine said the growth in the wealth of Russian businessmen comes mainly from the rise in stock prices of their companies on the back of government bailouts. However, the top ten joint capitals are still nowhere near 2007's $221 billion.
The magazine reports that one of the characteristics of the list was the increased presence of the entrepreneurs, whose companies work in the electronics sector. For example Evgeny Kaspersky, the owner of Kaspersky antivirus laboratory appeared at number 129 in the list with $0.6 billion.
The biggest jump was achieved by Gennady Timchenko, the founder of Gunvor crude oil trader. With $4.15 billion he jumped 375 positions to number 23.
Oleg Deripaska's fortune is on the rise again after his Rusal raised $2.5 billion at the recent Hong Kong IPO, according to the Wall Street Journal. He was Russia's richest man in 2008 with $40 billion, but was hit by the crisis