Vladimir Potanin, the Russian oligarch who has managed to dodge Western sanctions

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has dealt a severe blow to the economies and interests of certain Russian tycoons linked to President Vladimir Putin. Both the United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions against these oligarchs for their links to the war and their support for the Kremlin.

However, one of them has managed to escape Western blacklists due to his company's high profile in the global market. Vladimir Potanin (Moscow, 1961), Russia's second richest man, heads the mining and metallurgical company Nornickel, the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium. 

According to estimates by the Celebrity Net Worth portal, his wealth is valued at $70 billion, although media outlets such as Forbes claim that it could exceed $200 billion.

The nicknamed nickel king owns 15% of the world's nickel and 40% of the world's palladium, two key elements in the automotive industry and in the production of semiconductors. For this reason, the name Potanin is not on the Western sanctions lists, as including the Russian tycoon would increase the price of the two metals, directly affecting the entire automotive sector.  

Potanin has not only circumvented Western sanctions, but has also managed to grow his empire since the war. In April, the oligarch's investment holding company - Interros - reacquired Rosbank from the French brand Société Générale (SocGen), which had bought the Russian bank from Potanin years earlier.

In recent months, Interros has also acquired Tinkoff Bank, one of Russia's largest private banks, and United Card Services, the Russian arm of US payments firm Global Payments. 

As Europe tries to reduce its dependence on Russian energy, Potanin's company continues to produce metals for the continent. In 2021, Nornickel accounted for 27% of Europe's nickel imports, according to Wood Mackenzie data collected by Forbes.

In addition, the Russian company also has a battery materials production plant in the Finnish town of Harjavalta, built together with German chemical giant BASF. According to a statement from the German company, this plant "reinforces BASF's support of the EU Commission's agenda towards a European battery production value chain".  

Thus, nickel and palladium represent two key pillars for European industry. On the other hand, although the US is not as dependent on Russia in this regard, if sanctions were imposed against Nornickel, prices would rise everywhere, as Nikhil Shah, head of nickel research at CRU Group, tells Forbes.

For this reason, nickel imports "are excluded from many of the bans set out in the EU sanctions regulations", Sebastiaan Bennink, a partner at BenninkAmar, a Dutch law firm specialising in trade sanctions, reminds the business magazine.

However, the European Commission has told Forbes that "nothing is ruled out", according to Paloma Hall Caballero, a spokesperson for the Commission.  

The current situation makes Potanin the most powerful Russian oligarch today, exempt from Western sanctions unlike other tycoons also close to the Kremlin. His immunity from EU and US blacklists has even caused his relationship with Putin to grow closer. As the Financial Times explains, while the other oligarchs, including Abramovich, began to suffer the effects of sanctions, Potanin used his assets to buy stakes in major Russian banks, becoming the Russian government's main financial backer.

But it is not only the Kremlin that benefits. Potanin's wealth is estimated to have grown by $10 billion since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.  

Potanin's links with the Russian state go back to the Soviet Union era, when the tycoon worked in the USSR Ministry of Trade. Later, after the fall of the Soviet empire, Potanin served as first deputy minister for a short period of time during the Boris Yeltsin government and created his financial holding company Interros.

However, despite being one of Putin's most trusted confidants, Potanin has also been vocal and critical of certain Kremlin plans, such as Moscow's move to confiscate the assets of foreign companies that leave the country due to sanctions and the war in Ukraine.  

"I would call for a very cautious approach to the issue of confiscations of companies that have announced their exit from Russia. This would take us back a hundred years to 1917, and the consequences of such a step would be global investor distrust of Russia, which would be felt for many decades," Potanin said via a statement on Telegram.

The nickel king also predicted that Western companies would return to Russia, explaining they made the decision to leave due to "unprecedented pressure on them because of public opinion abroad". "Personally, I would hold out a chance for them," he added.