Today the economy, the portrait
Vladimir Potanin, the Russian "nickel king" spared from sanctions
Audio 03:59
Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin has been the CEO of nickel mining company, Nornickel since 2012. © REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
By: Aabla Jounaïdi Follow
5 mins
Vladimir Potanin is one of the richest Russian oligarchs.
The "king of nickel" as he is nicknamed, has the particularity of escaping Western sanctions despite his proximity to the Kremlin.
Only Australia and Canada have it on their lists.
Part of the explanation lies in the journey of this 61-year-old man.
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Unlike other great fortunes, such as Roman Abramovich, Mikhail Friedman or Oleg Deripaska, Vladimir Potanin has escaped the sanctions imposed by most Western countries since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Yet he built his fortune at the same time as them, in the shadow of the Russian state.
It was in the 1990s that Vladimir Potanin, at the time a civil servant in a state on the verge of bankruptcy, launched himself into the nascent private sector.
The time has come for massive privatizations of public monopolies in order to bail out the coffers.
He takes advantage of a controversial operation, the sell-off of large public flagships of the industry to seize the company Norilsk Nickel.
The group will make its fortune very quickly.
This member of the "nomenklatura", whose father is a diplomat and mother a doctor, uses his political contacts to achieve this.
With the arrival of Vladimir Putin in power, there is no longer any question of the oligarchs having the initiative.
They will henceforth be at the service of the Kremlin and will have to stay away from politics.
Otherwise, they will be sent to prison, like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former boss of oil giant Lukoil.
While the first sanctions fell on Russia after the invasion of Ukrainian Crimea, the oligarchs did not react.
"
I don't remember a single word about Ukraine during our discussions
," recalls Jean de Gliniasty, former French ambassador to Russia from 2009 to 2016 and now director of research at the Iris.
“
We were talking more about business.
But we didn't really talk about politics.
We were talking about France, a country he quite appreciates
,
”
adds the former diplomat.
Perhaps more than any other oligarch, Vladimir Potanin knows the new rules of the game. He bends to the presidential wishes.
This French-speaking (language learned on the benches of the Soviet university, editor's note) accustomed to ski resorts and the Basque coast in France, participates at great expense in the organization of the Winter Olympics in Sochi wanted by Vladimir Putin.
The businessman invests part of his personal fortune in it, estimated today at 30 billion dollars.
Former KGB agent
An equally important facet for understanding the character is his former membership in the intelligence services.
“
He is a former KGB, and for me it is still the most important characteristic
”, summarizes the expert Didier Julienne, connoisseur of metals, but also of Russian political mysteries.
This gives him a certain security, “
as long as he does not enter politics
”, specifies the expert.
This former KGB cap also taught him to weave his network outside of Russia.
Relays - political in particular - which could be useful in the event of a hard blow.
But isn't this the case for many other oligarchs, who have not yet escaped the sanctions?
“
The Europeans and Americans are putting people under sanctions who have taken positions or who have done things at a time that have shown a certain hostility towards the West.
Potanine, that has never been the case
”, underlines Didier Julienne.
Via his foundation, Vladimir Potanin gives selflessly to promote Russian “soft power” through the arts in France, the United States and elsewhere.
For several of our interlocutors, this link maintained with the West also allows it to avoid seeing its few yachts seized.
The other important element is geography.
A Russian supply of nickel sulphate (one of the components of electric vehicles) that Vladimir Potanin's group embodies as a world leader, and European demand set to become exponential.
“
Nickel in its medium-term strategic dimension,
(…) [responds to the]
environmental transition which is affirmed in a very very strong way by Europe, in accordance with its carbon neutrality objectives
”, explains the specialist in raw materials, Yves Jegourel.
“
And that makes the issue of postage to certain mineral resources quite complicated
,” sums up the expert.
Takeover of Rosbank
We are here at the heart of the contradictions of the policy of sanctions.
And it's not the only one.
Many Western groups have left Russia: McDonald's, the French Renault and Leroy Merlin.
Unprecedented isolation for 30 years in Russia.
But Vladimir Potanin, "
the ultimate opportunist
" takes advantage of it.
In April, he bought the Rosbank retail bank from Societe Generale, which the tycoon owned a few years ago.
"
The selling off of French interests in Russia contributes in some way to the fortunes of the oligarchs and the Russian state
", recognizes Jean de Gliniasty.
If the price of the transaction has remained secret, it will result in a net loss of approximately 3.2 billion euros in the income statement of Société Générale.
But the bank can hope to find a partner of choice in the person of Vladimir Potanin, if by chance it returns to the Russian market.
"
Potanin is destined to remain a major interlocutor in economic relations, assuming there are any in the future, between France and Russia
," said the former diplomat.
Loyal to the Kremlin, Russia's second fortune also knows what his country owes to foreign investors.
In a rare speech on the social network Telegram last March, without naming Putin, Vladimir Potanin warned against the temptation to confiscate the assets of Western groups.
At the same time, we learned that he was resigning from his position as administrator of the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
The institution had just condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
© RFI
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