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Vladimir Olegovich Potanin (; born 3 January 1961) is a Russian oligarch. He acquired his wealth notably through the controversial loans-for-shares program in Russia in the early to mid-1990s.
As of May 7, 2025, Forbes ranked 81st richest in the world, with a net worth of $24.2 billion.
His long-term business partner was Russian-Israeli oligarch 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.
In January 2018, Potanin appeared on the US Treasury's "Putin list" of 210 individuals closely associated with Russian president Vladimir Putin. In June 2022, United Kingdom has imposed sanction on Potanin for being one of the major oligarchs in "President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle."
Potanin was a close supporter of Anatoly Chubais who introduced Potanin to Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.
In 1995, Potanin was instrumental in the creation of the "loans for shares" auctions that became a pillar of Russia's post-Soviet economic reform. 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. According to the New York Times, the auctions plan was regarded in 1999 "almost universally as an act of colossal criminality."
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. One year later Soros admitted that his large investment in Svyazinvest was a mistake.
Since August 1998, Potanin has held the positions of both president and chairman of the board of directors of the Interros Company.
On November 25, 1998, Potanin recommended Boris Jordan to be Chairman of Sidanko which Jordan held until February 1999 when he stepped down.
According to a report published by investigative platform Meduza in 2016, Prokhorov turned to Valentin Yumashev, former Russian president Boris Yeltsin's chief of staff, to appeal to president Vladimir Putin. Reportedly, Putin "phoned Potanin in Prokhorov's presence and chewed him out, saying, 'It's dishonest to cheat on partners.'" Prokhorov ultimately decided to sell his 25% Norilsk stake to Rusal's Oleg Deripaska instead.
In March 2009, he sued Prokhorov for $29 million over a property disagreement in Moscow.
This sparked an ownership conflict between Deripaska and Potanin that was halted in 2012, when Roman Abramovich stepped in as a peacemaker by acquiring 6.5% of Norilsk and thereby maintaining the balance of power between Deripaska and Potanin. The truce also barred the parties to sell or acquire new stakes. The deal made Potanin CEO of the company, as he owned roughly 30% of Norilsk, about 2% more than Deripaska.
In February 2018, Potanin offered to buy 4% of Abramovich's stake. A provisional acquisition agreement was reached in March for Potanin to buy a 2% stake in Norilsk from Abramovich. The purchase was not yet officially approved as of March 2018, pending a court ruling in May that will decide whether the acquisition would breach the 2012 stakeholder agreement. If the purchase is approved, Potanin would own 32.9% of Norilsk against Deripaska's 27.8%. In April, Deripaska called off the deal citing sanctions as the reason.
On 28 June 2018 the court ruled against the sale of Abramovich assets to Potanin. It was unknown at the time whether Deripaska would exercise a contingent right to purchase shares.
As a result, pressure has been mounting on Potanin from Putin to clean up Norilsk Nickel's operations. In 2010, Putin stated that solving ecological problems in the Norilsk area must be one of the company's leadership's main tasks.
In September 2016, the local Daldykan river ran red after a suspected break of a Norilsk Nickel slurry pipe released industrial waste into the water. Norilsk Nickel was subsequently fined an undisclosed amount by the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor).
During a meeting with Putin in January 2017, Potanin promised to solve environmental problems by 2023 through the modernization of capacities. Briefing Putin on Norilsk Nickel's development and performance, Potanin promised to invest $17 billion over a seven-year period on measures to modernize the company's facilities and reduce pollution from its operations. Potanin said that the company planned to reduce its emissions by 75% as part of its long-term development programme through 2023. In the Norilsk area, emissions were reduced by 30–35% in 2017 alone, according to company data. However, another $2 billion environmental clean-up project is supposedly still outstanding.
In May 2020, a major oil spill occurred at a power plant owned by Norilsk Nickel, flooding rivers with up to 21,000 cubic metres of diesel oil, in what has been described as the second-largest oil spill in modern Russian history.
He allegedly urged Putin to approve expansion in the area to create a "Russian Courchevel", despite oppositional pressure from environmental groups who claimed it would further damage the region.
Following Potanin's complaint about a cost overrun of at least $530 million during the construction of hotels and chalets in Sochi and the Rosa Khutor ski resort (as required by the International Olympic Committee), Potanin sought compensation from the Russian government for the extra costs incurred.
It was later shown that construction of the Rosa Khutor resort had resulted in a vast patch of forest being cut down, although Potanin had announced that construction would require "little excavation and zero logging". This was strongly criticized by environmental conservation groups, such as Environmental Watch on North Caucasus.
Between 2005 and 2010, Potanin invested $500,000 in starting a leopard breeding initiative in the Mzymta valley. In 2015, he asked president Putin to allow for permits to double the size of the ski resort, an expansion that will threaten the leopard program he contributed to.
In April 2003, Potanin was elected chairman of the board of trustees of the Hermitage Museum, the most renowned Russian art museum.
He was a member of the Civic Chamber of Russia until 2014.
In 2016, Potanin's charitable organization, the Vladimir Potanin Foundation, donated works of art to be displayed at the Centre Pompidou's exhibition of Russian and Soviet art along with another 40 donors including Vladimir Semenikhin, the Tsukanov Family Foundation and others. For his efforts, Potanin was awarded the French Legion of Honour later that year.
Potanin was a member of the board of trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York. In March 2022, shortly after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, he stepped down as a trustee following outrage directed at closely associated with Putin.
On 6 April 2022, the Trudeau government added Potanin to its sanctions list over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On 15 December 2022, the US Treasury joined others by adding Potanin to its sanction list.
These three luxury motor yachts built by Oceanco were built for him:
Potanin is the only Russian to have signed The Giving Pledge, with a promise to donate at least half of his wealth to charity.
On December 24, 2021 he played a friendly chess match with grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi. The game ended with victory for the professional in the 38th move, though not with checkmate – Potanin conceded as a result of Nepomniachtchi’s superior position. Chess experts rate Potanin’s ability highly.
The claim was preceded by a smaller claim of $7 billion in 2015, after Potanin had offered a divorce settlement including a monthly allowance of $250,000 as well as real estate in Moscow, London and New York. The claim was struck down in 2016. Natalia argued that Russian law demands that wealth accumulated during a marriage is split evenly between the divorcees.
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