Putin's Reported Son-in-Law Among Russia's Wealthiest

The Moscowtimes, August 26, 2016

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reported son-in-law is among Russia’s wealthiest families, the Forbes Russia magazine revealed on Thursday. 

The family of Kirill Shamalov, the man rumored to have married Putin’s youngest daughter, entered Russia's top 10 wealthiest clans for the first time this year, with an estimated net value of $2.4 billion.

Shamalov, Russia's youngest billionaire, made headlines last year when he was named as the husband of Katerina Tikhonova, an academic widely rumored to be Putin's daughter.

The young businessman's fortunes began to skyrocket after being given a $1.3 billion loan from Gazprombank – a company at which his brother Yuri is a deputy chairman – to purchase a 17 percent stake in petrochemical company “Sibur.” Shamalov emerged as the second-largest shareholder in the company soon after the purchase, acquiring a 21 percent stake.

Kirill's father Nikolai is a close associate of Putin's, having worked with him as a co-founder of the Ozero (Lake) Cooperative real estate project. A number of the project’s original membershave gone on to occupy influential positions in Putin's Russia.

The Rotenberg family also feature in the list, coming in at second place. Arkady Rotenerg and his billionaire brother Boris were once Putin’s judo sparring partners.

Forbes also ranked Arkady Rotenerg prominently on their “kings of public procurement” listafter securing state contracts worth 556 billion rubles ($8.6 billion). The contracts included Gazprom's “Power of Siberia” pipeline to China, as well as the controversial Kerch bridge to Crimea.