Seventh Billionaire Renounces Russian Citizenship

• 8.02.2024, 16:44

And gets rid of Russian assets.

Businessman Vasily Anisimov, a former partner of Alisher Usmanov, has become the seventh billionaire to renounce Russian citizenship after the war in Ukraine began. According to the documents he provided to Forbes, Anisimov did it back in September 2022. However, this has not been known until now.

At the moment, the businessman, who lives in Switzerland, still has the citizenship of Dominica and Croatia. The first he acquired back in the mid-1990s for only $60 thousand. Croatian passport Anisimov received in October 2003. For this purpose, he had to invest a total of $11 million in the country's real estate. The money was used, among other things, to build a sports base in Croatia on the island of Korcula. Russian rhythmic gymnasts were training at this base until the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

Anisimov claims that he no longer owns any assets in Russia - he handed over his former Coalco company and Big Domodedovo to his managers. However, the businessman continues to visit the country. He does so on a business visa, which he obtains at the invitation of Big Domodedovo.

According to Forbes, Anisimov has a fortune of $1.6 billion, mostly from the sale of his stake in Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant to Usmanov and other assets. In addition, the billionaire has businesses in Kazakhstan and Africa. In 2022, he got involved in real estate in the UAE.

Before that, a number of major businessmen renounced Russian citizenship. Among them: founder and majority owner of Freedom Holding Timur Turlov (fortune $2.4 billion), founder of the Troika Dialog investment company Ruben Vardanian ($1.3bn), founder of DST Global investment company Yuri Milner ($7.3bn), founder of Revolut Nikolay Storonsky ($7.1bn), founder of Areti energy company Igor Makarov ($2.2bn) and founder of Tinkoff Group Oleg Tinkov ($0.86bn, estimated after the sale of Tinkoff Bank).