Forbes says that Alisher Usmanov is a Russian magnate who had a net worth of about $15.1 billion in 2017. He is also said to be the richest person in Russia, and a few years ago, he was the second richest person in the UK. Usmanov is a self-made billionaire. He started by selling plastic bags and building up a nice fortune. He then used his investments in several infrastructure companies to multiply his wealth by a huge amount. He put his money into mining, lumber, and electrometallurgical businesses. Later, he bought shares in publishing, mobile phone, and broadband businesses, among others. He has also bought shares in Arsenal FC and Everton FC, both of which are top EPL soccer clubs. He also owns “Kommersant,” a major Russian daily newspaper. He has put a lot of money into Russia’s biggest internet company, Mail.ru group, as well as Facebook and Twitter, two of the most popular social networking sites. Usmanov has shares in companies like Alibaba, AirBnB, Groupon, ZocDoc, and Zynga that are big in the tech world. He is a Muslim and is married to his Jewish wife, Irina Viner, who is a champion Uzbek gymnast and the head of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation.
Early years and childhood
Alisher Usmanov was born on September 9, 1953, in the village of Chust, which was part of the Ferghana Valley in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan was once a part of the USSR. His father was a public prosecutor in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, where he grew up.
As a child, he was naturally drawn to fencing, and he went on to be a great fencer, though his round figure might make it hard to believe that he was once a champion. He wanted to be a diplomat, so when he was young, he moved to Moscow and went to the Moscow State Institute for International Relations.
The “MSIIR” was once a famous university with a reputation for turning out candidates who were very well-trained and willing to serve the totalitarian communist regimes in the USSR without question. Alisher got his degree in “international law” from the school in 1976. He then moved back to Tashkent to become the Director of the “Foreign Economic Association” of the Soviet Peace Committee.
While he was at MSIIR, he made a lot of important connections, some of which he used later to build a great career. Usmanov has admitted that he used his high-profile relationships with KGB members to further his plans to build an empire.
Alisher Usmanov was arrested in 1980 for fraud involving socialist property in the “Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbek.” He was given an eight-year prison sentence, but he got out of jail two years early. After the USSR broke up, the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan overturned the original verdict, saying that the conviction was “unfair and that evidence was made up.”
Craig Murray, who was once Britain’s ambassador to Uzbekistan, said on his website that Alisher had also been charged with rape. The London-based law firm Schillings, which represented Usmanov, put pressure on the ISP that hosted Craig’s site to not only take down the blog post but also turn off the portal.
The Rapid Growth
By the time Alisher Usmanov was let out of prison, Russia was caught in the tumult of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) (restructuring). He found himself back in the Russian capital, where he was finishing up plans with a KGB official to start a company that makes plastic bags.
By the time Alisher Usmanov was let out of prison, Russia was caught in the tumult of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) (restructuring). He found himself back in the Russian capital, where he was finishing up plans with a KGB official to start a company that makes plastic bags.
He put all of his money together and bought shares in mining, steel, natural gas, wood, and electrometallurgical businesses. He started the mining and metallurgy business Metalloinvest with Vasiliy Anisimov. He used Metalloinvest as a front company to keep track of his investments in the metal industry.
Alisher Usmanov also set up a trusted company called USM Holdings to keep track of his investments in the iron and steel, mining and metallurgical, media, online technology, and pharmaceutical industries. He manages his shares in Ural Scrap Company, Ural Steel Mills, Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant, Mikhailovsky GOK, and Lebendinsky GOK through a company called “Metalloinvest.”
Usmanov is a part-owner of Norilsk Nickel, which makes the most palladium and nickel of any company in the world, as well as Nautilus Minerals. He is the sole owner of the Baikal Mining Company, which mines and extracts copper from the Udokan Mine, which is one of the largest copper reserves in the world.
He started investing through USM Holdings in Australian mining companies like Aztec Resources, Mt. Gibson, and Medusa in 2006. Later, he bought a controlling share in Strike Resources, an Australian mining company that had a license to get iron ore from a mine in Peru.
Usmanov has a big stake in Digital Sky Technologies, which is now called Mail.ru Group. In 2009, he paid US$200 million for a 1.96 percent stake in Facebook. After that, Mail.ru bought shares in 360buy, Alibaba, ZocDoc, AirBnB, and Twitter, all of which are well-known internet technology companies and automated social media platforms.
His investments in the very popular social networking site Facebook and the e-commerce giant Alibaba.com turned out to be very good for him, as the stock prices went up by a lot. Because of his incredible luck and success, he took a chance and invested in Xiaomi, a Chinese smartphone maker that no one had ever heard of.
Usmanov was very excited about making his multibillion-dollar business as global as possible and getting as many investors as he could. At one point, he seriously thought about putting a lot of his money into India’s IT sector, which was thought to be the world’s biggest software hub.
He owns 56% of MegaFon, which is the third-largest landline phone company in Russia and the second-largest mobile phone company. He is a member of the board of “Gazprom Invest Holdings,” which is the holding company of “Gazprom,” which is Russia’s largest company for extracting and selling natural gas and the biggest company by revenue.
As General Director of Gazprom Invest Holdings, he turned Gazprom into a public business that made money and got back most of its assets and resources. His investments in the media industry, which began in 2006, reached a high point when he bought a national newspaper called Kommersant.
In 2006 and 2007, he bought most of the shares of 7TV, a sports TV channel, and MUZ-TV, a music TV channel. He is also a co-owner of UTH, a media trust company that has a 51% stake in Disney Russia and a 100% stake in both U and MUZ-TV.
As Big as a Colossus in the World of Sports
Alisher Usmanov caused a big stir in the sports world when, in August 2007, he bought a 14.58 percent stake in Arsenal FC, an English soccer team based in Highbury, London. He and his business partner Farhad Moshiri put in a huge £75 million to buy the stake. For the purchase to go through, a trust subsidiary called “Red and White Holdings” was set up.
Alisher’s “Red and White Holdings” grew its share of Arsenal FC to 23 percent in just one month. By the end of 2013, he owned more than 30% of the shares in Arsenal FC.
Alisher was the president of the Russian Fencing Federation for eight years. From 2005 to 2009, he was also the president of the “European Fencing Confederation.” In 2008, at a meeting in Paris, he was chosen as the president of the “International Fencing Federation.”
Trying to help others
Alisher Usmanov’s “International Charity Fund for the Future of Fencing” has given a lot of money to several fencing groups, including the Russian Fencing Federation.
Together with the Tate Britain art gallery in London, he started the “Art, Science, and Sport” charity fund and set up a number of exhibitions, including the Turner Exhibition in 2013.
He is a trustee of the Russian Geographical Society, the National Research University Higher School of Economics, the European University in St. Petersburg, and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
Prizes and Awards
In 2004, Alisher Usmanov was given the “Medal of Honor of Russia,” and in 2011, he was given the “Order of Friendship of the Republic of Kazakhstan.”
In recognition of his charitable and community work, he was given the “Order for Service to the Fatherland IV class” in 2013 and the “Order of Alexander Nevsky” in 2014.
Her Personal Life
Alisher Usmanov used to be friends with Irina Viner, who taught rhythmic gymnastics. After many years, they got back together and got married in 1992. They don’t have any children of their own, but Irina had a child from a previous marriage, so they are also parents to that child.
He owns several nice homes, including a Tudor mansion in the countryside of Surrey. He also owns the Beechwood House, which is a large home on an 11-acre property in the London suburb of Highgate.
Estimated Net worth
Alisher Usmanov is a Russian businessman who was born in Uzbekistan and has an estimated net worth of $18 billion. Usmanov has a lot of money because he has invested in mining, lumber, and other things. He owns most of the Russian industrial conglomerate Metalloinvest, which he started to manage the metals interests of Gazprom.