Net Worth: $753 million

Age: 38

Marital status: Married, three sons and one daughter

Last year: $2.4 billion

Industry: Metallurgy

In December, Oleg Mkrtchian struck an important deal. The co-owner of the Industrial Union of Donbas (IUD) bought a 75 percent stake in the Kuban soccer club from Krasnodar, Russia. The team handsomely rewarded its new Ukrainian owner by winning the Russian First Division, and so from next season will compete in the Russian Premier League. The club’s annual budget is $18 million – quite impressive for a club anchored near the bottom of the table. For Mkrtchian, Russian football is an important social duty. Thee millionaire has a number of projects in the Krasnodar Territory, one of which is the construction of a metal factory in Armavir. IUD has but put a halt to its construction because of the crisis – one reason being the slack season in the metallurgical sector – but investment in football is a different matter. “For all football in Kuban, such a deal is good news,” writes the North Caucasus newspaper. “The territory’s budget will no longer be spent on the upkeep of a hopeless team.”