Pavel Durov became the richest Russian billionaire in 2021

For the second year of the pandemic, domestic billionaires got rich by $101.39 billion - their total fortune increased to $576.72 billion, calculated Forbes . Pavel Durov and Tatyana Bakalchuk were at the top of the capital building rating in 2021.

• The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, became the richest among Russian billionaires in the outgoing 2021 - his fortune added $13.81 billion to $17.24 billion (estimated as of December 20). Forbes notes that the entrepreneur’s capital increased so significantly due to an increase in the valuation of his main asset, Telegram: in March, the messenger placed its own bonds for the first time and attracted $1 billion on the market, and in the fall, the application recorded a sharp influx of new users (more than 70 million people) amid a malfunction on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.
• In second place is the founder of Wildberries Tatyana Bakalchuk. Over the year, its capital increased by $11.92 billion to $13.02 billion. The retailer's valuation rose after the successful IPO of Ozon, the marketplace's main competitor.
• Andrey Melnichenko, the main shareholder of EuroChem and Suek, occupied the third place in the rating - in the incomplete 2021, his capital grew by $10.60 billion to $25.37 billion. World prices for coal and fertilizers, which rose in repeatedly.
• The top 5 richest Russian billionaires also included the owner of Severstal Alexei Mordashov and family (+ $6.83 billion to $29.52 billion) and the main shareholder of Lukoil Vagit Alekperov (+ $6.44 billion to $26.16 billion) . Their capital also grew against the backdrop of an explosive rise in the price of raw materials - ferrous metallurgy and oil, respectively.
• Among the other billionaires in the top 10 of the rating, the majority also increased their capital thanks to rising prices for raw materials - this is the shareholder of Novatek, Sibur, Stroytransgaz and Transoil Gennady Timchenko, the co-owner of Novatek Leonid Mikhelson, the shareholder of Novatek, Sibur, Stroytransgaz and Transoil, Lukoil" Leonid Fedun. Among those who were able to raise capital not at the expense of rising world prices are the founders of Playrix, the Bukhman brothers and banker Oleg Tinkov.

Not only Russian billionaires are getting richer: the American Forbes previously calculated that out of 2.6 thousand billionaires around the world, almost 70% increased their fortune, and some became richer by hundreds and tens of billions at once. At the same time, the publication noted that the total fortune of Russian billionaires increased by almost a third (30%). This is almost the highest figure in the world except for India (+41%).