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Mikhelson tops Forbes list of richest Russians with $14.4 billion fortune

Leonid Mikhelson in the key shareholder of Russia’s largest independent gas producer Novatek and petrochemical giant Sibur

Leonid Mikhelson ITAR-TASS/Valery sharifulin

Leonid Mikhelson

© ITAR-TASS/Valery sharifulin

NEW YORK, March 1. /TASS/. Leonid Mikhelson, key shareholder of Russia’s largest independent gas producer Novatek and petrochemical giant Sibur, has been for the first time crowned by Forbes as the country’s richest man.

Mikhelson is ranked 60th on the list of the world’s richest people with $14.4 billion fortune.

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A total of 77 Russians are on the 2016 World's Billionaires list, Forbes said, adding that 88 Russians were on the list last year.

Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, who shares control of Alfa Group, the biggest financial and industrial investment group in Russia, is ranked 63rd with a fortune worth $13.3 billion.

The majority owner of Russian telecom operator MegaFon Alisher Usmanov, who topped the Russian list for several years, is on 77th place with $12.5 billion.

Vladimir Potanin, who topped the Forbes rating of the richest Russians with the fortune of $14.8 billion last year, is ranked 78th place with $12.1 billion.

Co-founder of the Gunvor Group, one of the largest international energy traders, Gennady Timchenko is fifth richest man in Russia and 85th in the world with a fortune worth $11.4 billion.

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