According to the 2010 Forbes rating of Russia’s 100 richest, Potanin boosted his fortune from 2.1 billion USD in 2009 to 10.3 billion USD this year. That makes the oligarch Russia’s seventh richest man.
Meanwhile, Norilsk Nickel, a key part of Potanin’s Interros holding, continues to be one of the main polluters in Russia. Alone the company units in Nikel and Zapolyarny, located along the border to Norway and Finland, emit about 100,000 tons of sulfur per year. That alone is about five times more than Norway’s total sulfur emissions. In addition come the company units in Monchegorsk, further south in the Kola Peninsula.
Norilsk Nickel is the world’s leading producer of nickel and palladium. A significant part of company operations are made in the Kola Peninsula by regional subsidiary Kolskaya GMK.
The chairman of Interros successfully overcame the 2009 crisis and has again made his main company assets profitable businesses. Following the split of Interros with partner Mikhail Prokhorov in 2007, Potanin was forced to take huge credits of up to seven billion USD in 2008. Those debts have successfully been downpaid and now only amount to two billion USD, Forbes informs.
The Forbes rating shows that the richest man in Russia is Vladimir Lisin with a fortune of 15.8 billion USD, followed by Mikhail Prokhorov with his 13.4 billion USD and Mikhail Fridman (12.7 billion USD).
