Azernews.Az

MOSCOW – Four Azerbaijanis are among Russia’s 114 billionaires, according to the annual rating of the country’s richest people compiled by Finans magazine.

Russian oil giant Lukoil’s CEO, ethnic Azerbaijani Vagit Alekperov ranked tenth. Though Alekperov’s wealth increased $250 million compared to the previous ranking, he dropped two positions in the list.

Other Russia-based Azerbaijani tycoons who were listed are the owner of Crocus Group Araz Agalarov, Farhad Akhmedov of Nortgaz and president of the AST group of companies Telman Ismailov.

Agalarov advanced 28 rankings to 71st spot, nearly doubling his wealth to $1.5 billion.

Akhmedov ranked 27 positions below last year’s ranking as his wealth reduced $300m to $1.4bn.

AST head Ismailov saw his wealth rise to $1.1bn from $860m, but was rated 10 positions below last year, ranking 97th.

Two steel tycoons retained their top two positions in the 2011 list of Russia's richest people, BBC reported.

NLMK owner Vladimir Lisin and Mikhail Prokhorov of Onexim Group benefited from rising metal prices. Lisin's wealth was estimated at $28.3bn, compared with Prokhorov's $22.7bn.

Alisher Usmanov, an Arsenal Football Club shareholder, jumped four positions in the list to the third place.

The wealth of the owner of Metalloinvest, metals-to-telecoms magnate Usmanov, was estimated at $19.9bn.

Oleg Deripaska, the majority shareholder in steel maker Rusal, ranked fourth with $19.9bn.

Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich dropped two positions in the list to the fifth place. His wealth is worth $17.1bn.

The number of Russian billionaires increased to 114 from 77 in the past 12 months, the Finans magazine said.

The only female billionaire on the list was Elena Baturina, wife of the former mayor of Moscow. She dropped 47 positions in the list to 94th place, with the estimated wealth of $1.1bn from her real estate business.

Her husband, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov was sacked by the Russian president in September.