Gennady Timchenko

Gennady Timchenko
Timchenko in 2018
Gennady Timchenko
Born	Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko 9 11, 1952
Birthplace	Leninakan, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union (now Gyumri, Armenia)
Nationality	Russian, Finnish, Armenian
Occupation	Businessman, investor
Known for	Founder of Volga Group; co-founder of Gunvor Group; Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kontinental Hockey League
Spouse(s)	Elena Timchenko
Children	3

Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko (Template:Lang-ru; also spelled Guennadi Timtchenko; born 9 November 1952) is a Russian billionaire businessman and oligarch who built a vast commercial empire centered on energy trading, natural resources, and infrastructure. Born in the Armenian SSR of the Soviet Union, Timchenko rose from a career in the Soviet oil industry to become one of Russia's wealthiest individuals, with interests spanning natural gas, petrochemicals, transportation, and construction. He is the founder and owner of Volga Group, a private investment firm, and co-founded the Geneva-based energy trading company Gunvor Group, which became one of the world's largest traders of Russian crude oil. Timchenko's business career has been closely intertwined with the political rise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he has maintained a friendship since the early 1990s in Saint Petersburg. This relationship has drawn sustained international scrutiny, particularly following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, both of which resulted in extensive Western sanctions against Timchenko and his assets. As of March 2022, he was ranked 205th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated fortune of US$10.3 billion, making him the sixth-richest person in Russia. Beyond business, Timchenko is known as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and President of the SKA Saint Petersburg ice hockey club. He holds citizenship of Russia, Finland, and Armenia.

Early Life

Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko was born on 9 November 1952 in Leninakan (now Gyumri), in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. Despite his birthplace in Armenia, Timchenko is of Russian ethnicity. Details of his early family life remain limited in publicly available sources, though it is known that he grew up during the Soviet era and followed a path into the technical professions that characterized upward mobility in that period.

Timchenko's early career began in the Soviet oil industry, where he worked his way up from technical positions. According to Russian media accounts, he started as a workshop foreman (master tseha) in the oil sector before gradually ascending the ranks of the Soviet industrial apparatus. This background in the Soviet oil trade provided him with the technical knowledge and personal connections that would later prove instrumental in his post-Soviet business ventures.

During the late Soviet period, Timchenko became involved in foreign trade operations related to petroleum products. This experience positioned him at the nexus of the Soviet Union's most valuable export commodity at precisely the moment when the planned economy began to dissolve and new opportunities for private commerce emerged. His presence in Leningrad (later Saint Petersburg) during this transformative period was particularly significant, as it was there that he formed relationships with individuals who would go on to occupy positions of considerable power in post-Soviet Russia.

Career

Early Business Ventures and the Oil Trade

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 opened vast new opportunities in the Russian energy sector, and Timchenko was among those positioned to capitalize on them. In 1991, Vladimir Putin, then serving as head of the Committee for External Relations of the Saint Petersburg Mayor's Office, granted Timchenko an oil export license. This license allowed Timchenko to enter the lucrative business of exporting Russian crude oil to international markets, a trade that would form the foundation of his enormous fortune.

During the 1990s, Timchenko became increasingly active in international oil trading. He established operations in Western Europe, leveraging his early access to Russian oil exports and his growing network of contacts in both the Russian government and international commodity markets. His activities during this period laid the groundwork for the creation of one of the world's most significant energy trading enterprises.

Gunvor Group

Timchenko co-founded the Gunvor Group, a commodities trading company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, together with Swedish businessman Torbjörn Törnqvist. Gunvor rapidly grew into one of the largest independent commodity trading companies in the world, handling vast volumes of Russian crude oil exports. At its peak, Gunvor was reported to have traded billions of dollars' worth of Russian oil, making it a central player in the global energy market.

The company's meteoric rise attracted considerable attention from Western governments and media, particularly regarding the nature of Timchenko's relationship with Putin and whether this relationship afforded Gunvor preferential access to Russian oil. Timchenko himself has acknowledged his friendship with Putin but has consistently maintained that his business success was the product of commercial acumen rather than political patronage. In an interview with Forbes Russia, Timchenko stated that if he had not been publicized as a "friend of Putin," his business might have been worse off, implying that the association both helped and complicated his commercial activities.

Prior to the imposition of US sanctions in 2014, Timchenko was described as the biggest Russian oil trader. He sold his stake in Gunvor shortly before the United States Treasury Department placed him on its sanctions list in March 2014, transferring his ownership to his business partner Törnqvist. Despite Timchenko's formal departure from the company's ownership structure, Gunvor has continued to be associated with him in media reporting and political discourse.

In October 2025, it was reported that Gunvor had submitted an offer to acquire Lukoil's international holdings, pending approval from the United States government. This transaction would involve the transfer of foreign assets from Lukoil, which itself had come under punishing US sanctions.

In August 2025, investigative journalists at Важные истории (iStories) reported that former executives of Timchenko's companies had been providing services to Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" — a network of aging tankers used to circumvent Western sanctions on Russian oil exports — operating in Russian sea ports.

Volga Group and Investment Portfolio

Timchenko founded and owns the Volga Group, a private investment firm through which he holds stakes in a diversified portfolio of Russian businesses. The Volga Group serves as the primary vehicle for Timchenko's investments across multiple sectors of the Russian economy, including energy, petrochemicals, transportation, and infrastructure.

Among Timchenko's most significant investments is a large stake in Novatek, Russia's largest independent natural gas producer. The Novatek investment has been a cornerstone of Timchenko's wealth and has connected him to Russia's strategically important liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector. The Pandora Papers leaks revealed that a firm controlled by Timchenko, which played a key role in the Novatek investment, obtained massive loans through anonymous offshore shell companies, raising questions about the transparency of the financial arrangements underpinning his holdings.

In addition to Novatek, Timchenko holds stakes in Sibur Holding, one of Russia's largest petrochemical companies. His portfolio also extends to construction, infrastructure, and transportation companies, reflecting a strategy of diversification across sectors that are central to Russia's economy.

In October 2025, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Timchenko had acquired British energy major Shell's former 50% stake in a company producing oil in western Siberia. The acquisition was part of a broader pattern of Western companies divesting their Russian assets following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with politically connected Russian businessmen acquiring the assets at potentially discounted prices.

In August 2025, the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK, founded by the late Alexei Navalny) reported that a Russian company owned by Timchenko had taken over management of Baltika Breweries, which had been seized from Danish brewer Carlsberg by the Russian government. The same investigation alleged that Timchenko's firm had been serving as a "common fund" used to cover personal expenses of Vladimir Putin, including payments for private tutors for Putin's children.

Relationship with Vladimir Putin

Timchenko's friendship with Vladimir Putin dates to the early 1990s, when both men were active in Saint Petersburg. Putin, then a deputy to Mayor Anatoly Sobchak and head of the city's Committee for External Relations, was responsible for overseeing foreign trade and investment activities. It was in this capacity that Putin granted Timchenko an oil export license in 1991, a foundational moment in Timchenko's business career.

The nature and extent of the Putin-Timchenko relationship has been a subject of considerable scrutiny by journalists, Western intelligence agencies, and international sanctions bodies. Timchenko has publicly acknowledged the friendship, though he has pushed back against characterizations suggesting that his commercial success is solely attributable to political patronage. Western governments, however, have cited this relationship as a basis for imposing sanctions on Timchenko, arguing that he is part of Putin's inner circle and benefits from proximity to the Russian president.

The August 2025 FBK investigation alleging that Timchenko's companies covered personal expenses for Putin, including payments for the education of Putin's children, added a new dimension to the publicly known aspects of this relationship, suggesting a degree of financial entanglement that went beyond conventional business-political ties.

Ice Hockey

Timchenko has been a prominent figure in Russian professional ice hockey. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), the premier professional ice hockey league in Russia and several other countries. He also serves as President of SKA Saint Petersburg, one of the most successful clubs in the KHL. These roles have made Timchenko one of the most influential figures in Russian sport, and his involvement in hockey has been seen as reflective of the broader pattern of Russian oligarchs assuming leadership positions in professional sports organizations.

Sanctions and Legal Challenges

United States Sanctions (2014)

In March 2014, following Russia's annexation of Crimea, the United States Department of the Treasury placed Timchenko on its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List). The sanctions froze any assets Timchenko held under US jurisdiction and prohibited US persons from doing business with him. The US government cited Timchenko's close relationship with Putin as a basis for the designation, identifying him as a member of the Russian president's inner circle. Shortly before the sanctions were announced, Timchenko sold his stake in Gunvor Group to co-founder Torbjörn Törnqvist.

European Union Sanctions and Asset Disclosure

Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union imposed additional sanctions on Timchenko as part of a broader package targeting Russian oligarchs and officials. In October 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union upheld a rule requiring sanctioned individuals to disclose their assets across the entire EU bloc, rejecting a legal challenge from Timchenko. The ruling represented a significant legal setback for Timchenko, reinforcing the EU's authority to demand comprehensive asset transparency from sanctioned Russian elites.

United Kingdom

The government of the United Kingdom was reportedly preparing to sanction Timchenko just before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The timing of the anticipated UK sanctions underscored the degree to which Western governments had identified Timchenko as a figure of strategic importance in efforts to pressure the Russian government.

Personal Life

Timchenko is married to Elena Timchenko. The couple have three children together. He holds citizenships of three countries: Russia, Finland, and Armenia. His Finnish citizenship dates from a period when he maintained significant business interests and residences in Finland, though subsequent sanctions have complicated his ability to operate freely in EU member states.

Timchenko's Armenian citizenship is linked to his birth in Leninakan (now Gyumri), in what was then the Armenian SSR. His triple citizenship has been a notable feature of his public profile, reflecting the transnational character of his business operations and personal life.

Despite the extensive sanctions imposed on him by Western governments since 2014, Timchenko has continued to operate within Russia and in jurisdictions not aligned with the Western sanctions regime. The sanctions have, however, significantly constrained his ability to manage international assets and travel freely in Western countries.

Recognition

Timchenko has received state honors from the Russian government. He was awarded Russian state decorations in recognition of his contributions to the economy and to sports development in Russia.

His leadership positions in the KHL and at SKA Saint Petersburg have brought him considerable visibility in the Russian sports world. Under his tenure, SKA Saint Petersburg became one of the most competitive and well-resourced teams in the KHL.

In the financial sphere, Timchenko has been a regular fixture on international wealth rankings. Forbes has tracked his fortune over many years, and as of March 2022, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his net worth at approximately US$10.3 billion.

Timchenko's prominence has also made him a frequent subject of investigative journalism. His business dealings have been examined in the Pandora Papers, by the Anti-Corruption Foundation, and by numerous Russian and international media outlets. The attention has overwhelmingly focused on the intersection of his business activities and his political connections.

Legacy

Gennady Timchenko's career encapsulates many of the defining dynamics of post-Soviet Russian capitalism: the conversion of Soviet-era industrial connections into vast private fortunes, the close interrelationship between political power and economic success, and the increasing tension between Russian oligarchic wealth and the Western-led international order. His trajectory from a workshop foreman in the Soviet oil industry to one of Russia's wealthiest individuals mirrors the broader story of how a small number of well-connected individuals came to dominate key sectors of the Russian economy during the turbulent 1990s.

The Gunvor Group, which Timchenko co-founded, became a case study in the internationalization of Russian energy trading. At its height, Gunvor handled a significant portion of Russia's crude oil exports, making it a company of geopolitical as well as commercial significance. Timchenko's formal departure from Gunvor's ownership in 2014 did not end public and governmental scrutiny of the relationship between the company and the Russian state, and Gunvor's reported 2025 bid for Lukoil's international assets demonstrated the enduring relevance of the entities Timchenko helped create.

The successive rounds of Western sanctions imposed on Timchenko — by the United States in 2014, and by the European Union and United Kingdom in 2022 — have made him one of the most prominent targets of the international effort to apply economic pressure on Russia's ruling elite. The October 2025 EU court ruling affirming the bloc's authority to require sanctioned individuals to disclose their assets represented an expansion of the legal tools available to enforce these measures.

Timchenko's ongoing acquisition of assets divested by Western companies retreating from Russia — including Shell's former stake in a western Siberian oil producer — indicates that his influence within the Russian economy has, if anything, grown in the post-2022 environment, even as his access to Western financial systems has been curtailed.