Gallery From Daring to Diligent to Dangerous: The Many Colorful Faces of Russian and Eurasian Business in Africa. Part I. by Editorial Team May 9, 2021 by Editorial Team May 9, 2021 Share 0FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhatsappEmail 240 Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is a Russian businessman and politician of Kalmyk descent. He served as the president of the Republic of Kalmykia from 1993 to 2010 and as president of FIDE, the global governing body for chess, from 1995 to 2018. His business interests have spanned media, sport and oil and gas from Russia to Bulgaria. Ilyumzhinov claims to have been abducted by aliens from his Moscow apartment in 1997. He invests heavily in African chess, and is said to represent a number of state and private Russian commercial interests on the African continent. Viktor Vekselberg is a Forbes-listed Russian billionaire businessman. He is the owner and president of Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate with interests in aluminium, oil, energy and telecom. He is the chairman of the Russia-South Africa Business Council and has invested in mining on the continent. Konstantin Malofeev is a Russian businessman, chairman of the board of the media group Tsargrad and founder of the global investment fund Marshall Capital Partners. Known as “God’s Oligarch,” he launched the International Agency of Sovereign Development (IASD) at the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi. The IASD signed agreements to act as a consultant to Niger, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo to attract $2.5 billion in funding via sovereign debt. Lev Leviev is an Israeli billionaire businessman of Uzbek Bukhari Jewish descent. Nicknamed the “King of Diamonds,” he owns the Leviev Group of Companies, the world’s only diamond firm to control each facet of the diamond pipeline: from mine ownership to rough trading to designing jewelry. His African investments are centered in Angola. Alexey Mordashov is a Russian billionaire businessman. The main shareholder and chairman of Severstal, he has interests in metal, energy and mining. The company’s Africa operations have spanned the breadth of the continent, from South Africa to Burkina Faso to Liberia. Igor Sechin is a Russian oligarch and government official. The head of Russia’s state oil company, Rosneft, he is considered a close ally of President Vladimir Putin. Rosneft has joined the Zohr gas project offshore Egypt, owns a non-operating stake in Mozambique’s gas blocks and has a 12-year LNG supply deal with Ghana. The company also signed a memorandum of understanding with Nigerian energy mogul Prince Arthur Ezi’s Oranto Petroleum Limited in 2018 to pursue future cooperation on oil and gas production, refining, logistics and trading projects across Africa. Russian magnate Vitali Machitski is the founder and president of Vi Holding. The company owns a 50-percent stake in Great Dyke Investments, which will soon invest $650 million into a platinum project in Zimbabwe, with the African Export-Import Bank acting as the lead financier. The project has the potential to become one of the world’s largest platinum mines. Machitski is also chairman of Vimetco, a globally integrated aluminium group with bauxite mines in Sierra Leone, coal mines, aluminium production and processing facilities and an electricity plant in China, and an alumina refinery and aluminium smelter in Romania. Dmitry Mazepin is a Russian oligarch businessman, originally from Belarus. He is the majority shareholder and chairman of Uralchem, Russia’s largest ammonium nitrate and second largest ammonia and nitrogen fertilizer producer. He is the chairman of the Russia-Zimbabwe Business Council. Actively expanding in Africa, Uralchem plans to acquire a 50-percent stake in Zimbabwe’s state phosphorus fertilizer producer, Chemplex. It also plans to build a urea plant in Angola. The company currently supplies products to Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Angola and Mozambique. Alexander Mashkevich is an Israeli-Kazakh businessman of Lithuanian-Jewish descent, who was born in Kyrgyzstan during the Soviet Union. He is a major shareholder and the chairman of Eurasian Resources Group S.à r.l., previously Eurasian National Resources Corporation. The company operates metals assets in Kazakhstan and Africa, with mining operations in countries throughout Eastern Europe and Africa. Mashkevich is also a co-owner of Alferon Management, a London-based company that has acquired mining operations in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Vagit Alekperov is an Azerbaijani-Russian billionaire businessman and the president of Lukoil. One of the largest global producers of crude oil, the company has extensive assets and a deep interest in Africa, including stakes in the deepwater Pecan field offshore Ghana, the Bonga Southwest/Aparo field off Nigeria, the Marine XII license offshore the Republic of Congo and the Fortuna LNG project in Equatorial Guinea. Arkady Gaydamak is a Russian-born French-Israeli businessman, philanthropist and president of the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organizations of Russia. He was previously granted honorary Angolan citizenship and holds French, Canadian and Israeli passports. He was a central figure in Angolagate, an international political scandal over the confidential sale and shipment of arms by the Government of France from Central Europe to Angola’s government in the 1990s. He is rumored to have played a central role in the Angolan diamond industry during that era. Oleg Deripaska is a Russian oligarch. Founder of Basic Element, one of Russia’s largest industrial groups, he has extensive interests in Africa. His aluminium company, RUSAL, owns the massive Dian-Dian bauxite mine in Guinea. RUSAL is also active in Nigeria. It acquired a controlling stake in the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) in 2007. ALSCON includes an aluminium smelter, a gas-fired power station and a port on the Imo River. RUSAL owns 85 percent of ALSCON, with the Nigerian government owning the remaining stake. Andrey Guryev is a Russian billionaire and the former head of PhosAgro, one of the world’s four largest phosphate-based fertilizer producers. He is the vice president of the Russian Union of Chemists. His son, Andrey Guryev, Jr., is now the CEO of the company. PhosAgro has shown a specific interest in the South African and West African markets. Yevgeny Prigozhin is a Russian businessman rumored to have with close ties with President Vladimir Putin. He is widely referred to in the media as “Putin’s chef” due to his restaurants and catering businesses that have hosted the Russian president. He is wanted by the FBI and was accused of interfering in the U.S. presidential election in 2016. Prigozhin is rumored to have done the same across Africa, sending out a fleet of 100 to 200 political consultants to influence the outcome of African elections. Prigozhin has also been named as the man behind the Wagner Group, a private military group advancing the interests of the Russian government abroad. Prigozhin is also said to have a close relationship with the Central African Republic and its President Faustin-Archange Touadera. Media report that his company mines diamonds, gold and other minerals there in exchange for national security support. Alexander MashkevichAlexey MordashovAndrey GuryevArkady GaydamakDmitry MazepinIgor SechinKirsan IlyumzhinovKonstantin MalofeevLev LevievOleg DeripaskaVagit AlekperovViktor VekselbergVitali MachitskiYevgeny Prigozhin Editorial Team previous story Nigerian multimillion-dollar startup Paystack launches in South Africa next story From Daring to Diligent to Dangerous: The Many Colorful Faces of Russian and Eurasian Business in Africa. Part II. You may also like Here Are 10 of The Wealthiest Tycoons in Kenya Who You Most Likely Don’t... October 23, 2021 Billionaires.Africa Ranking: The 20 Richest Investors On the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX) July 7, 2021 From South Africa to Algeria, These Men Are Africa’s Richest Football Club Owners May 16, 2021 From Daring to Diligent to Dangerous: The Many Colorful Faces of Russian and Eurasian... May 9, 2021 Ten African Heiresses Driving Forward Their Parents’ Legacy April 18, 2021 Eight Thriving African Billionaires Who Are 60 Years Old and Under April 17, 2021