Vladimir Potanin
1961 – ? Russian oligarch, banker, industrialist
Banker who devised the loans-for-shares scheme and won control of the Norilsk Nickel metals giant.
- Affiliations
- Oneximbank, Interros, Norilsk Nickel
Vladimir Potanin ran the Oneximbank and proposed the loans-for-shares scheme in 1995, under which banks lent the cash-strapped government money against shares in prize state companies, then kept the companies when the loans went unpaid. Through the scheme his group won control of the Norilsk Nickel metals giant, one of the world's largest producers of nickel and palladium, at a fraction of its value. He briefly served as a deputy prime minister. He kept his fortune and his assets through the Putin years and has long ranked among Russia's richest people.
Connections
- associate of Anatoly Chubais — The banker whose loans-for-shares plan he carried out.
- associate of Anatoly Chubais — The official who carried out his loans-for-shares plan.
In the timeline
- 1995 Potanin proposes loans-for-shares scheme the author of the scheme
- 1995 Loans-for-shares auctions held a leading beneficiary
- 1995 Norilsk Nickel auctioned to Potanin's group the winning bidder
- 1995 Russia's loans-for-shares auctions mentioned
- 1995 Potanin's Uneximbank wins Norilsk Nickel in loans-for-shares auction mentioned