The Real World's Richest Man? 'Putin is richer than Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos combined

If the account of a US Financier, Bill Browder, is correct,Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, is the world's richest man .

Browder reportedly told senators last week that the Russian President is richer than both Mr Bezos and Mr Gates combined.


According to Newsweek,  the chief executive officer of Hermitage Capital Management estimated the net worth of Putin at $200bn. Both Bezos, the Amazon.com founder and Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder are worth a combined $183 billion.

Newsweek said that Mr Browder’s company was once the largest portfolio investor in Russia and that Mr Browder was a shareholder in Gazprom, Surgutneftegas and other Russian state-run enterprises in the 1990s.

Around that time Putin reportedly made a deal with Russian businessmen that made him the “richest man in the world”.

Mr Putin’s personal fortune has been the subject of intense debate and speculation in recent years.In 2016, another report claimed he was the world's richest person.

Newsweek reports that, according to Mr Putin’s official asset form – a mandatory public disclosure for all Russian government officials – he earns $133,000 a year and has a modest apartment in Moscow.

Culled from Independent.co.uk