Billionaire Alexey Mordashov, the richest man in Russia before the war, has complained about heavy losses from Western sanctions. “We at Severstal lost a little more than $400 million (€400 million) – they got stuck in Europe, were confiscated as goods and cash reserves,” the 57-year-old said on Wednesday, according to the Interfax news agency. At the same time, he complained that it was very difficult to return export earnings to the country.
Before the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine, Mordashov topped the Forbes list of Russian billionaires. Because of his interests in a bank and a media holding, both of which are considered to be close to the Kremlin, Mordashov was one of the first to be put on the western sanctions lists. For this reason, Forbes magazine downgraded him to fifth place in April. His estimated net worth is said to have fallen to $13.2 billion from $29.1 billion last year. The billionaire described the sanctions against him as unjust and sees himself as far from politics.
In Germany, before the war, Mordaschow was the largest single shareholder in the tourism group TUI, with a stake of 34 percent. Because of the sanctions, he ceded 29.9 percent to a company owned by his wife Marina Mordashova.
In addition to Severstal’s assets, Mordashov’s personal belongings in Europe were also confiscated, including a luxury yacht. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanded on Wednesday that Russia and the Russian oligarchs must compensate Ukraine for the consequences of the war and pay for the reconstruction of the devastated neighboring country.
