Vladimir Potanin — businessman with roots in the USSR
Vladimir Potanin is a Russian billionaire who controls Norilsk Nickel — the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium and a major copper and platinum producer. One of the architects of Russia's 1990s privatisation era, he obtained Norilsk Nickel through the infamous 'loans-for-shares' scheme and built it into a global mining giant. Consistently Russia's richest or second-richest individual.
Tracing the roots — Moscow (Russia)
Born in Moscow in 1961 into a family of Soviet trade officials, Potanin rose through the Soviet foreign trade apparatus before becoming one of the key figures of Russia's post-Soviet privatisation. His acquisition of Norilsk Nickel — through a scheme he co-designed — became the defining example of how Soviet-era insiders captured Russia's greatest industrial assets.
Moscow (Russia). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.