Jules Evans says billionaire industrialist Oleg Deripaska has global business ambitions — but a dispute with another Russian tycoon, Michael Cherney, may get in his way
Oleg Deripaska wants it all. He already has quite a lot: assets in Russian insurance, pulp, construction, airports, media, cars, and oil, and a controlling stake in the world’s largest aluminium company, Rusal. These make him Russia’s second-richest man, worth $18 billion according to Forbes; only Roman Abramovich is richer.
But Deripaska’s ambition is not yet sated. He wants a place in the top league of global businessmen alongside Bill Gates and Lakshmi Mittal. And so far his ambition appears to enjoy strong Kremlin backing. This is remarkable considering the extent to which he is a Yeltsin-era figure, and how badly others of that ilk, such as Boris Berezovsky or Mikhail Khodorkovsky, have fared under President Putin. But, like Abramovich, Deripaska has managed to make the transition from the era of the oligarchs to the era of the security services.
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