The wife of former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov and Russia’s only female billionaire, Yelena Baturina, has topped an annual list of the country’s 25 richest women for the sixth year in a row, according to the latest rating published by the Russian edition of Forbes on Thursday.
The magazine estimated Baturina’s fortune at $1.2 billion — a $200 million increase from last year but less than the $2.9 billion she is said to have owned in 2010 when her husband was still mayor.
Baturina, 55, served as the president of the Inteco Management construction company, which she sold after her husband’s departure as mayor of Moscow in 2010 and moved abroad, where she embarked on a number of development projects, Forbes reports.
The combined wealth of the 25 wealthiest Russian women was nearly $9 billion, according to Forbes, paling in comparison to the wealth of the richest Russian men. Metals magnate Vladimir Lisin topped Forbes’ list of richest Russian men this year with $19.1 billion.
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The second richest woman on the list, worth $600 million, is Tatyana Batalchukn — the founder and director of the popular Wildberries online retailer.
Elena Rybolovleva, who reportedly acquired much of her wealth as a result of her divorce from Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, was ranked third in the Forbes ranking with $600 million.
The three richest Russian women were followed in the list by Natalia Fileeva, the chairman of the board of directors of the S7 airline company, with an estimated worth of $600 million, and Olga Belantseva, the co-owner of the Progress baby food plant, with $500 million.
Forbes noted that four out of the five newcomers to the list were family members of male “billionaires and members of the political elite.” They include Polina Deripaska, the wife of sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska, as well as Liliya Rotenberg, the daughter of Putin’s close associate Arkady Rotenberg.
