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Profiles: Russia's rich list


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(CNN) -- The following are profiles of Russia's so-called oligarchs, a group of businessmen who made their fortune following the fall of the Soviet Union.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky

• Age: 41

• A former Communist Youth League leader, now Russia's richest businessman with an estimated net worth of $8 billion

• Head of Yukos Oil, which became the world's fourth-largest oil company following a merger with rival Russian firm Sibneft

• Founded Menatep bank in 1987

• Bought Yukos at a state auction in 1995 for the bargain price of $350 million

• Made his first millions in the early 1990s, when Menatep acquired shares in companies that were privatized at knock-down prices

• Took 26th place in Forbes magazine's billionaires list in 2003

Now faces fraud and tax evasion charges that could result in a 10-year prison sentence

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Roman Abramovich

• Age: 37

• Businessman and Governor of the Russian province of Chukotka, accused by audit office of serious financial abuse

• Made his fortune initially through oil deals in the early 1990s

• Estimated net worth of $5.7 billion

• One of the major shareholders in the Russian oil firm Sibneft, which merged with Yukos Oil

• Owner of the Chelsea football club, bought in July 2003

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Boris Berezovsky

• Age: 58

• Former media baron and car salesman, rose to become a Kremlin power-broker under Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union

• Sought in Russia on fraud charges, but granted political asylum in Britain last September

• Main business interests remain in the car industry, media, banks, energy and a stake in national airline Aeroflot

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Vladimir Gusinsky

• Age: 52

• Multimillionaire, media tycoon and former theater director

• Once controlled Russia's biggest independent media empire including radio stations, a newspaper, magazines and the influential NTV television network

• Arrested in Greece last August on fraud charges, but charges were subsequently dropped


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