What is Vladimir Putin's net worth?

Vladimir Putin earns a relatively modest annual salary of $140,000, according to official documents from the Kremlin.

The Russian president is also supposedly living the life of a "humble statesman", with declared assets of an "800-square foot apartment, a trailer, and three cars", said Fortune.

But some experts believe the 72-year-old is one of the wealthiest people on earth, with potentially billions in undisclosed income and assets.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What is Putin's net worth?

According to Fortune, the Russian president is worth up to $200 billion, making him one of the richest people in the world, behind the second richest man, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, and above Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The estimate comes from financier Bill Browder, who has previously testified to the US Senate Judiciary Committee that the wealth was amassed after the Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed in 2003 for fraud and tax evasion. Putin is "often seen sporting high-end luxury watches that are retailed for multiple times his supposed annual income", said Fortune, and he is rumoured to be the owner of multiple homes and hundreds of cars, as well as dozens of aircraft and helicopters.

His "lavish lifestyle has regularly been on display", said the UK Foreign Office in May 2022 after the war with Ukraine broke out and the new sanctions on Russia were announced. The department said that reports had exposed links to a £566 million yacht and the $1bn so-called "'Putin's Palace', officially owned by close associate, Arkady Rotenberg".

How did he amass his fortune?

Where Putin's wealth has come from publicly remains somewhat of a mystery. One theory is that he has "strongarmed Russia's oligarchs" into handing over cash and shares in companies, "threatening them with arrest or worse" should they refuse, said CNN.

Another is the "mafia model", said Forbes, in which Putin helps friends and family members "become rich by awarding them government contracts or ownership in businesses" and in return receives "kickbacks".

It's also suggested that perhaps Putin has "little money of his own" but "simply likes people to think he does". The "appearance of having it" is enough and the "power that it would otherwise confer" is available through his unassailable position in the state, meaning Putin may simply not "need personal wealth".

How has he hidden his money?

Tracking Putin's wealth is "probably the most elusive riddle in wealth hunting", reported Forbes, which said it had been grappling with the mystery of Putin's money for "20 years".

Putin's Russia has been described by Transparency International as a kleptocracy – or "rule by thieves".

When the UK announced it would sanction Putin personally in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the then foreign secretary Liz Truss said the Russian president's lifestyle was "funded by a cabal of family, friends and elites" and their "reward is influence over the affairs of the Russian state that goes far beyond their formal positions”.

In a rare glimpse into the personal finances of his inner circle, in 2016 the Panama Papers revealed a network of secret offshore deals and loans worth $2bn pointing to Putin.

"Though the president's name does not appear in any of the records, the data reveals a pattern," said The Guardian. "His friends have earned millions from deals that seemingly could not have been secured without his patronage."

Have Western sanctions had any effect on his assets?

Given that Russia's "richest people added $72bn to their fortunes" in the year to April, it is unlikely punitive sanctions have had much effect on Putin's personal assets, said Reuters.

The country's "war-focused economic growth" has "stifled the impact of Western sanctions". However in the long-term that economic bounce is "masking problems" related to Russian living standards.

Effective sanctions have long been a problem for the West, as "the system that built Putin's riches has also frustrated US and European efforts to punish him", reported USA Today in 2022. "Each round of sanctions raises new questions about whether those efforts can affect the man who treats the wealth of an entire nation as his own."