Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Net Worth: $70 million

Age: 59; 62

Marital status: Married, one son; married, two children

Last year: $70 million

Industry: Production of household appliances

In 2005, the president of Nord group and Party of Regions deputy Vladimir Landik had to explain that the production of orange fridges by his factory had begun before the revolution. “It was a fashionable color,” he said. He said that the first batch of 5,000 orange fridges were snapped up in just two days. Vladimir Tikhonov, also from the Party of Regions, reminded the businessmen brothers of the orange marketing in spring 2009. He says that one orange fridge was presented to Yulia Tymoshenko, the heroine of the Maidan. “They prepared one specially” noted Tikhonov. Scandal? Court? Hardly. The Landiks have more important things to be doing. For the past year and a half they have been quarrelling with importers of fridges. “We initiated an anti-dumping investigation regarding the activities of LG and Samsung and won,” Valentin Landik tells the Delo newspaper. Constant appeals to the anti-dumping committee, the prosecutor general and the government, demanding the introduction of customs dues on LG and Samsung products convinced parliament it was time to introduce a 13percent import tariff. As an anti-crisis measure, the owners of Nord decided to increase their share of exports. “By March our factories were working without losses,” says Valentin Landik.