Usmanov Alisher Burkhanovich is one of the most successful Russian entrepreneurs of modern times. According to Forbes magazine, in 2013 he became the richest businessman in the country. He became well-known to the general public several years ago when he helped to return to Gazprom assets withdrawn as early as the nineties.
Early biography of Alisher Usmanov
The future entrepreneur was born in September 1953 in a small town of the Uzbek Republic. He is the eldest son in the family, where besides him there was another child. The main hobby of Alisher’s childhood was fencing. Being only fourteen years old, he was part of the youth team of the Uzbek Republic in this sport. And soon he received the title of master of sports and entered the national team of the Union. In 1971-1976 he studied at the most prestigious university in the country - MGIMO, majoring in International Law. After graduation, the young man enters the Academy of Sciences and becomes a junior researcher there.
Alisher Usmanov's biography: difficult years
It would seem that such a successful start to a career in the state system should have led the guy to brilliant results. However, here the successful biography of Alisher Usmanov for some time changes its focus. In 1980, the young man was arrested on charges of embezzlement, fraud and extortion. The future oligarch received eight years in prison. However, already in 1986, he was released on parole from places of detention. Later, the businessman said that this was political repression, and in 2000 he was completely acquitted and rehabilitated by the Supreme Court of the Uzbek Republic.
Alisher Usmanov's biography: the path to billions
After leaving prison, a 33-year-old man decides to do business. In the same year he founded a travel company that was engaged in providing exotic hunting for wealthy foreigners in the Pamir mountains. Usmanov later moved to Russia. Here, for almost all the nineties, he has been the deputy director of Intercross, a company that produces telecommunications equipment. In parallel, he establishes his own companies. In 1993, the businessman was on the board of directors of the First Russian Independent Bank, becoming a very serious figure in Russian business. In 1997, Alisher Usmanov linked his activities with the gas structures of the country, taking the post of deputy head of Gazprominvestholding. He remained in this post until 2000, after which he himself became a director.
In parallel with this activity, the businessman holds the position of one of the directors of the Arkhangelsk Diamonds company. And at the very beginning of the two thousandths, he becomes an adviser to the board of Gazprom. A successful Russian entrepreneur, Alisher Usmanov, whose biography describes the ups and downs, begins to buy media from the middle of the 2000s . So, in 2006, he acquired all 100% of the shares of the Kommersant Publishing House. And in the same year he became a co-owner of the Muz-TV and 7TV television channels. A year later, the oligarch acquires part of the shares of the London football club Arsenal and becomes one of its co-owners. According to Forbes reporters, today he is the richest man in the Russian Federation.