A Russian or former Russian businessman who has achieved significant success outside of Russia.

Fur, caviar, oil, vodka, space, autocracy and the KGB - this is a set of world-recognized symbols inherited from the Russian Empire and the USSR. Each allows you to create a global brand or a global business, the right to existence of which is difficult to refute: there is nothing to argue against the first man in space. And there are such brands: Roscosmos in orbital transportation, Rosneft and Gazprom in hydrocarbon production, Evgeniy Kaspersky, who won the trust of hundreds of millions of computer users around the world by indicating in advertising that he is a programmer in uniform from the Soviet state security.

Furs and caviar are small markets, and supplies have become scarce. The issue of autocracy in Russia has become too pressing to give it a commercial spin. What remains is vodka. Russia's loss of first place in its production at the end of the 20th century is not the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of this century, rich in misfortunes, but it is offensive.

Rustam Tariko undertook to restore justice. The transformation of a native of the town of Menzelinsk in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the owner of the largest alcohol company in Eastern Europe could seem like a miracle, if not for the tenacity with which Tariko built the business literally with his own hands for 25 years. Literally - if only because Tariko unloaded the cars with Martini, the vermouth that brought him his first money in the early 1990s, with his own hands. In Forbes' "Golden Hundred" (Tariko ranks 60th in it with a fortune of $1.75 billion), there are many entrepreneurs who worked at the turn of the 1990s with their hands or feet - some dyed jeans, some carried computers across the border. But few people were so consistently engaged in their main business, without scattering themselves on what was in fashion: mergers, loans-for-shares auctions, real estate, state bonds and, finally, politics. The main business consisted of two parts - alcohol and a bank - united under the name “Russian Standard”, and Tariko persistently looked for empty niches in the market and built large-scale businesses in their place.

Early 1990s. An unknown entrepreneur makes Martini the best-selling foreign alcohol brand in Russia. 1998 Tariko becomes a monopolist in the supply of middle-class cult favorites Johnnie Walker, Bacardi, Baileys to the country and launches the production of Russian Standard, the first Russian premium vodka, surpassing Absolut and Smirnoff. In 2010, the owner of Russian Standard bought the Italian wine house Gancia for €100 million. And finally, a protracted war for the international group CEDC with revenue in 2007 of $1.2 billion, which owns the largest vodka factories in Hungary and Poland, the world’s second vodka market. Having spent about $420 million, Tariko became the owner of 100% of CEDC, beating the Russian vodka kings Mark Kaufman, Yuri Shefler, and at the same time Alfa Group.

The day when a Russian will become the world's largest seller of vodka may already be close: Tariko's companies in terms of sales volumes lag behind the leader, British Diageo, by less than a third. And he himself believes in this, declaring: “It’s difficult to become a global leader in the alcohol market in other categories, but in vodka it’s possible.” Although both Russian Standard Bank and Tariko's alcohol business still generate most of their revenue in Russia, he says he intends to build a global company. The 51-year-old vodka king, who speaks fluent Italian and is famous for his loud parties and tenacity in achieving his goals, has everything ahead.

Nominee for the title "Cosmopolitan of the Year"

Yuri Milner

The DST Global II fund and Milner himself invest mainly in American and Chinese projects. The most famous technology investor from Russia, Milner spends much of his time outside the country. He has a luxurious mansion worth $50 million in Silicon Valley.

Oleg Boyko

In 2013, Oleg Boyko’s Finstar investment holding became a co-owner of Fashion TV, which manages 13 TV channels of the same name in different countries. In addition, he produced Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut.

Cosmopolitan of the Year. Rustam Tariko