From original sin to war expropriation: asset redistribution in Russia

Abstract

The largest redistribution of property in Russia since the 1990s began before the war, in 2021, but reached its peak in 2024-2025. 12% of the billionaires on the Forbes Russia 2021-2023 list have experienced either a nationalization of their assets, an attempted seizure, or an involuntary sale on non-market terms. The total value of assets for which the Prosecutor General's Office filed seizure claims from early 2022 to late 2025 exceeds 4.99 trillion rubles (53.5 billion euros). Of those assets, 2.6 trillion rubles (27.5 billion euros) belonged to billionaires on the Forbes list. In addition, Russian billionaires involuntarily sold assets worth over 1.6 trillion rubles (equivalent to 17.6 billion euros on the dates of sale) after the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. We considered all exits from Russian assets after 2022 to be involuntary sales. The main beneficiaries of this process are state-owned corporations and Vladimir Putin's inner circle. Therefore, this process is not aimed at forming new business elites, but rather, at further concentrating assets in the hands of Putin's cronies. Despite the regime becoming more personalized following the invasion of Ukraine, the redistribution of property remains a complex, multi-layered process affecting upper- and mid-level elites and bureaucrats. At the same time, there are no signs that Putin is losing control over the transfer of ownership of the largest and most important enterprises. Even if nationalization were to expand further, it is unlikely that big business would take collective action to exert political pressure on the Kremlin. So far, the redistribution of property does not directly threaten the stability of the authoritarian regime or its ability to wage war. However, it increases the burden on the system, heightens the risk of inter-elite conflicts, and paves the way for potential challenges in the post-Putin era.