“Being the wife of a Russian millionaire is a full-time job. Every day is work: I plan and create the style and type of life that suits us both. We have three houses in three different countries and each chair, each plate I choose me”.
They could be the words of speaking of their life as a couple, but they are statements collected by that of Aleksandra Kokotovic, Andrey Melnichenko’s wife and the only one of the 21 Russian millionaires who gathers the Bloomberg millionaires index who, despite the Western sanctions on Moscow in response to the , has increased its assets in 2022.
The Russian king of mineral fertilizers, as he is known, has seen his fortune increase by 20%, 3,500 million dollars (about 3,200 million euros) more so far this year, up to a total of 20,000 million. Earnings that have led him to position himself as the second richest oligarch in the country and 69th in the world.
The Russian king of fertilizers received in 2016 from Putin an award for his good deeds
Among his compatriots, he is only surpassed by Vladimir Potanin, president and founder of Oneximbank, owner of the nickel mining complex in the city of Norilsk, and considered one of the main oligarchs in the country, with a net worth of 22.3 billion dollars that has been reduced about 28% since January 1.
Now, who is Andrey Melnichenko? According to the news agency, the tycoon was born on March 8, 1972 in the Soviet city of Gomel, now Belarus. He finished the Internship of the Center for Specialized Education and Research under the auspices of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, where he began to study Physics, later moving to the Russian Plekhanov University of Economics where he studied in Finance.
acquisitions race
His first business was a currency exchange office that he established in the still Soviet capital. After the fall of the USSR, he created the MDM bank with two former colleagues and under his direction the entity became one of the largest and most successful private banks in Russia until the 2000s, when Melnichenko associated with the metal trader and Sergei Popov oil.
Both began to buy industrial plants and coal mines throughout the country and from this union three closed capital companies emerged: EuroChem, now the largest producer of fertilizers in Russia; Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK), the largest producer of domestic thermal coal, and TMK, a manufacturer of steel pipes.
Subsequently, Popov and Melnichenko sold their shares in TMK to another partner, Dmitry Pumpyansky, in 2006 and a year later, the partners exchanged assets: Popov took control of MDM Bank and Melnichenko became the sole owner of EuroChem. Subsequently, Melnichenko also bought out Popov’s stake in SUEK.
Since 2007, the millionaire is a member of the Bureau of the Board of Directors of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), where he is the chairman of the Mining Commission. From the hands of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, he received a special award for his good deeds and charitable works in 2016 after donating millions to philanthropy.
Face in gossip magazines
Aside from his business profile, Melnichenko is also a well-known figure in glossy magazines. In 2005, the businessman married the former Miss Yugoslavia, former model and pop singer of the Serbian group Models, Aleksandra Kokotovic, on the Côte d’Azur, in a wedding that is estimated to be among the ten most expensive in history. Estimated to have cost around $30 million, they were booked to perform at the reception and (which he flew to the event on private planes) and in which Melnichenko “dismantled a Russian chapel, which was then shipped and rebuilt in France.” , according to Forbes.
The marriage owns one of the largest yachts on the planet, the Sailing Yacht A, designed by Philippe Stark, which is 143 meters long, with a gross weight of 12,600 tons. This vessel left the port of Barcelona last week with the aim of avoiding possible embargoes in European Union territory. According to web data, she meets yesterday’s data in the Italian port of Trieste.
The couple’s heritage also flies high. Andrey and Aleksandra own a large business jet based on a Boeing 737, with a list price of $80 million. They also like art. Its pinoteca has two works from the Water Lilies series, by Claude Monet, and numerous pieces of furniture from the 18th century.
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