Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich is no longer one of Russia's three richest men after being outranked by oligarchs who benefit from recovering oil and commodity prices, a report said today.
The 2011 rich list compiled by Moscow's Finans magazine put Abramovich's wealth at $17.1 billion, up only $100m in a year that saw some of Russia's other 114 billionaires make far more dramatic gains.
Vladimir Lisin, the publicity-shy owner of the Novolipetsk Steel giant, retained his position as Russia's wealthiest man, seeing his fortune soar to $28.3 billion from $18.8 billion in 2010.
He was followed by Onexim investment fund owner Mikhail Prokhorov at $22.7 billion and Alisher Usmanov, the part-owner of Arsenal Football Club, whose wealth was estimated by Finans at $19.9 billion.
Abramovich slipped to fifth behind Oleg Deripaska, the majority shareholder in steel maker UC Rusal whose empire was worth $19 billion, Finans said.
Russia's biggest tycoons - many of whom made their fortunes in the chaotic privatisations of the 1990s and then accrued major political influence - were hit hard by the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008.
But the country's billionaires have been making a steady recovery, with their ranks swelling from 49 to 77 in 2010. Each of the 500 people on the 2011 list was worth at least $160m, the report said.
