This article originally appeared in The Sunday Times
AS THE wife of Russia’s richest oligarch, Natalia Potanina was long inured to a life of fabulous luxury. She commanded a private army of servants and bodyguards, enjoyed weekends on the family’s two mega-yachts and travelled by private jet. In the good old days the couple could easily spend £6m on the family’s summer holiday.
But since Vladimir Potanin, whose wealth has been put at between £9bn and £10bn by Forbes magazine, filed for divorce in 2013 Potanina’s life has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. She still lives in the family villa in Moscow, with its decor of gilded antique furniture and precious tapestries resembling a tsarist mansion. But she says it was recently sold by her ex-husband.
Potanina, who was married to her husband for 30 years, has had to cut back on staff and expenses and says she now gets by only on what’s left of the living allowance Potanin used to give her before the divorce. When I ask in polite small talk as she carefully vets our photographer’s portrait of her whether she still likes to holiday in Italy, she shoots me a baffled look and cries: “With what money? I can’t afford to anymore. I have nothing!”
Petite, soft-spoken but feisty, Potanina is now on a personal quest to change her financial fortunes. She is taking to court her ex-husband, one of Russia’s most powerful and well-connected tycoons, in an attempt to force him to pay her what Russian law states she is entitled to: 50% of all his assets.
If successful, Potanina stands to receive the single largest divorce settlement in history, up to £5bn — at least in theory.
“The law speaks clearly,” says Potanina, 53, immaculately groomed and elegantly dressed in black, as she sips orange juice in an upmarket Moscow restaurant, accompanied by a lawyer and a PR consultant — a close friend of many years who is helping her field dozens of media requests.
“I’m entitled to half of the family’s fortune — that’s what the law states. I’m only asking that the law be respected. It’s far too easy to think of what he built as his and to forget the role a wife and family plays. He had nothing when we married. Everything he achieved he did while he was married to me. I supported him through thick and thin. His fortune and success is also thanks to all the stability, love and family life I gave him.”
Potanina says she wants to set a precedent. On paper, Russian divorce law provides ample protection for women. In practice, however, it favours men with money and political connections whose influence and power can sway a court’s decision. In a country where the judicial system is not independent, courts typically rule against the ex-wives of oligarchs.
In 2003 Yelena Novitskaya, the ex-wife of the steel tycoon Alexei Mordashov, whose estate is now estimated by Forbes at more than £8bn, lost her court case against him after a relatively modest initial divorce settlement.
Novitskaya was not only denied any further share of Mordashov’s fortune, she was also ordered by the court to pay £2.5m court costs.
Natalia Potanina was married to Russia’s wealthiest oligarch, Vladimir Potanin, for 30 years
Olga Slutsker, a prominent Russian businesswomen, spent years locked in an acrimonious court battle after her ex-husband, a powerful senator, forbade her from seeing their children.
“In Russia there’s a clear discrepancy between what the law states and how it’s implemented when there’s a rich and powerful person involved,” says Potanina. “Sometimes courts rule in favour of men in such cases. All I’m after is fairness. I didn’t want this conflict but I was left with no choice.”
On Wednesday a Moscow court will hold a preliminary hearing in the high-profile “battle of the Potaninskis” when a judge will consider Potanina’s claim to half of her ex-husband’s shares in Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium. The market value of the listed company — in which Potanin owns a 30% stake — is more than £17bn.
Most of the oligarch’s other assets are thought to be tied up in a complex web of offshore companies and trusts, making it all but impossible for his ex-wife to prove what he owns. “Norilsk, however, is a clear case, it’s a public company, it would be rather extraordinary if a Russian court suddenly ruled that Vladimir does not own a large chunk of it.”
In an apparent attempt to win the government’s support and assuage fears that one of Russia’s most important companies could be rocked by the divorce battle, Potanina has vowed to place any shares awarded to her by the court under the control of the state.
Vladimir and Natalia married when they were still at university shortly before perestroika. “We lived in a small flat and had nothing,” recalls Potanina. “There were times when I’d wash my daughter in cold water. The very first money Vladimir invested came from our family budget.”
Over the next decade Potanin, the son of a senior foreign trade official, became one of the nation’s first oligarchs — the hungry Soviet men who first set out in the treacherous world of post-communist business and built multi-billion empires.
Potanin, 54, who at one point was deputy prime minister, was among the Russian billionaires with the closest Kremlin ties. The oligarch helped finance the Sochi Winter Olympics and enjoys good relations with President Vladimir Putin.
“He’s an extremely driven man, he’ll pursue his aim with manic determination and he likes a good fight,” says Potanina. “Life changed very quickly for us. First we hired a nanny, then came the cars, the drivers and bodyguards, the homes, the yachts, the private planes. From the very first kopek to the last billion, it was all built when Vladimir and I were married.”
For Potanina the fairy tale ended abruptly in January 2013 when her husband told her he wanted a divorce. Months later she learnt from the press that Potanin had fathered a love child with a younger woman he employed and whom he has since married.
“I was utterly devastated, my whole world collapsed,” says Potanina. “I never expected it. I loved him and thought I’d spend the rest of my life with him. One gets used to luxury, of course, but for me it was never about money it was always about family.”
Potanina claims that when he announced he was filing for divorce her husband asked her to sign a statement saying she would relinquish all her rights to his assets. She refused. She also says he told her that “no one would listen to her” if she turned to the courts.
A Moscow court ruled Potanina should receive a quarter of her ex-husband’s pay — £100,000 — in child support for their teenage son Vasily. The couple’s two other children, Anastasia and Ivan — both jet-ski champions — are 31 and 26 respectively.
It has been reported that Potanin claims his marriage to Potanina ended in effect in 2007 when his assets were valued at a fraction of what they are now. The oligarch’s lawyers have said that last year he offered his ex-wife a settlement of a lump sum payment of £32m, a portfolio of properties in Moscow, London and New York and a monthly allowance of £163,000. “The current offer is more than enough,” a lawyer for the oligarch said earlier this month.
Potanina vehemently denies any offer was made, and claims she receives “absolutely nothing” from her ex-husband. Ivan, their elder son, said his father had also broken off all contact. His sister works in the oligarch’s business empire. “He’s behaving appallingly,” says Potanina. “I just can’t explain why. Maybe it has something to do with a midlife crisis he’s living through or money and power going to his head.”
Before his divorce, Potanin made headlines by joining the Giving Pledge, a charity initiative set up by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, and vowed to give the majority of his fortune to charity — a first for a Russian oligarch. “I also see it as a way to protect my children from the burden of extreme wealth, which may deprive them of any motivation to achieve anything in life on their own,” he said two years ago.
“Time will tell if he sticks to his promises,” says Potanina. “He’s entitled to do whatever he wants with his share. As far as mine is concerned, that’s up to me. This is not his fortune. It’s ours. I’m a reasonable person and I’m open to dialogue and compromise. I hope Vladimir is too. All I’m asking is to be treated fairly.”
Asked what she would do if she succeeded in becoming the world’s wealthiest divorcée, Potanina, pauses and smiles nervously. “In Russia we have a saying: ‘Don’t skin a bear before it’s been felled.’”
