A member of the Russian elite saves assets by distancing himself from his country
Following the start of the military operation in Ukraine, rich and powerful people from Russia began relocating abroad, seeking to disassociate themselves from their country. For instance, billionaire Andrey Melnichenko moved from Switzerland to the Emirates and applied for a new citizenship there last year.
To safeguard his assets, Melnichenko smartly transferred shares of major companies EuroChem and SUEK to his wife Alexandra on March 8, just before being placed on the sanctions list. This led to his former model wife becoming the owner of an estimated $10 billion fortune.
The tycoon also successfully protected his 118-meter yacht from being seized, but his second yacht and villa in Italy were still confiscated. Melnichenko is now attempting to lift this seizure through legal means.
Currently, the businessman is taking steps to demonstrate his lack of association with Russia, aiming to improve his reputation among Western business and political leaders. In an interview with the Swiss magazine Weltwoche, the billionaire claimed to be from Belarus, with a Ukrainian mother, a Croatian wife, and children who were born in France and hold French citizenship. Additionally, Melnichenko asserted that he has lived in Switzerland for the past 15 years and has no ties to Russia.
The billionaire began his business journey in the 1990s by establishing a currency exchange office at Moscow State University, and later founding MDM Bank. His success was greatly assisted by the Minister responsible for the nuclear industry, Yevgeny Adamov, who was later convicted of fraud and whom Melnichenko met in 2000.
On Adamov's recommendation, 27-year-old Melnichenko was appointed chairman of the board of the state bank Converse, the primary financial institution of the Russian nuclear industry. The minister's support explains how MDM Bank managed to acquire a controlling stake in Converse, interfering with Mikhail Fridman's Alfa-Bank, which also had interest in this institution.
Through its operations, Converse's customers gradually transitioned to MDM. Furthermore, Melnichenko's bank was granted the contract to process Russian highly enriched weapons-grade uranium into low-enriched uranium for American nuclear power plants (the “HEU-LEU agreement”), leading to annual financial flows of about $1 billion. With these earnings, the businessman acquired coal mines and Siberian power plants at low prices, which were later consolidated into the SUEK holding. The EuroChem group was established in a similar fashion.
At present, Melnichenko's entire business is under a holding company managed in trust by a trust operated by former U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury for Law Enforcement Ronald Noble. Therefore, it appears that the shares of Russian industrial giants SUEK and EuroChem are overseen by a former American high-ranking official.
