Gennady Timchenko

In March 2014, following the Crimean status referendum, the U.S. Treasury put Timchenko on the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN), a list of individuals sanctioned as “members of the Russian leadership’s inner circle.” The sanctions freeze any assets he holds in the US and ban him from entering the United States.

Timchenko is married to Elena. They have three children. As of March 2014, Timchenko lives in Moscow, Russia, while his family resides in Switzerland. His daughter Ksenia is married to Gleb Frank, son of Putin's former transport minister Sergei Frank. They married in 2010.

Timchenko was the co-founder (together with Torbjörn Törnqvist) of Gunvor Group, a corporation registered in Cyprus, and operating in trading and logistics related to the international energy market. On 19 March 2014, Timchenko sold his stake in Gunvor to the other co-founder, Torbjörn Törnqvist. The sale was made the day before Timchenko was included on the United States sanctions list in the wake of the annexing of Crimea by Russia. Timchenko said he had sold his stake in anticipation of "potential economic sanctions" and to "ensure with certainty the continued and uninterrupted operations of Gunvor Group". The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

In November 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York is examining allegations about transactions in which Gunvor Group bought oil from Russia's OAO Rosneft and sold it to third parties through the US financial system, which could have been illegal. Gunvor released a statement on 6 November denying any crime.

In April 2014, Timchenko sold a 49% stake in the Finnish company IPP Oy, which owned 99% of the Finnish aviation company Airfix Aviation. It was a small part of the Volga Group portfolio. Timchenko was subject to international sanctions after the 2014 Crimean crisis in April 2014.

Volga Group has been listed by the US Dept of Treasury (OFAC - Office of Foreign Assets Control) as a SDN (specially Designated Nationals) in the Ukraine-related sanction lists of 2014.

In July 2013, he was appointed as a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur for creating a permanent exhibition of Russian art in the Louvre, support for the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg, and help in organizing the Alekhine Memorial chess tournament.

In July 2013, together with the brothers Arkady Rotenberg and Boris Rotenberg, Timchenko established Arena Events Oy, which bought 100% of Helsinki's Hartwall Areena. They also bought a stake in Jokerit, the six-time national champion of the Finnish top-level ice hockey league Liiga. Consequently, Jokerit transferred to the Kontinental Hockey League for the 2014–15 season and they play in the Western Conference in Bobrov division. They also own the large sport hall Hartwall Areena in Helsinki. This is connected to a multi-storey car park, with capacity of 1,421 private vehicles.

In 2013, he became one of the sponsors and organisers of one of the most important international chess tournaments in the ELO rating – the Alekhine Memorial.

On 12 October 2013, Timchenko received French title of the Cavalier of Legion of Honour. This award prompted Russian political writer Andrey Piontkovsky to write that "awarding a criminal with nickname Gangrene the highest distinction brings shame to the French state".

According to the Russian publication RBC, in 2012 Timchenko's worth was estimated at $24.61bn.

In 2012, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Continental Hockey League (KHL).

In July 2012, he replaced Vyacheslav Fetisov as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Continental Hockey League KHL.

In 2011, Timchenko was elected Chairman of the Economic Council of the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce (CCIFR).

In 2011, Timchenko was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of SKA Saint Petersburg, the leading ice hockey team.

In April 2011, Timchenko replaced Alexander Medvedev as Chairman of the Board of Directors of SKA Saint Petersburg, the Saint Petersburg-based ice hockey club. In May of the same year, under the new management structure of the club, he was appointed as Club President.

In 2010, Gennady and Elena Timchenko created the Ladoga Foundation. The main activity of the fund has been s providing help for the elderly, as well as the restoration of spiritual and cultural heritage monuments, support for cultural projects and project support in the field of modern medical technology. In September 2013, the Ladoga Foundation was renamed to the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Foundation (or just Timchenko Foundation for short), consolidating all their charitable activities and supporting elderly people, sports, culture and foster families.

In 2008, Gennady and Elena Timchenko founded the Neva Foundation in Geneva, in order to promote and finance cultural projects in Switzerland and Russia. The foundation has focused on lyrical art and a partnership with the Geneva Opera House. Renowned Saint Petersburg Philharmonic conductor Yuri Temirkanov has been a trustee.

In 2007, Timchenko founded the Volga Group (Volga Resources Group) private investment fund. Volga group holds his Russian and international assets in the energy, transport, infrastructure, financial services and consumer sectors.

In 2007, Timchenko founded the Luxembourg-based fund Volga Resources. The fund, which consolidates Timchenko's assets, was renamed in June 2013 as Volga Group and introduced at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. He noted that, for the next few years, his group will focus on the development of infrastructure projects in Russia.

In 2007, Timchenko and the company Surgutex founded the Kluch charitable foundation, which develops professional foster homes in Leningrad, Tambov and Ryazan regions.

In 2004, the Helsingin Sanomat wrote that he acquired Finnish citizenship, and that he lived in Geneva at that time. In an October 2012 interview with the Russian edition of Forbes, Timchenko said that he had both Russian and Finnish citizenships. In August 2014, Timchenko said in an interview with ITAR-TASS that he needed Finnish citizenship to travel in the 1990s, when it was harder to travel on a Russian passport, and that he never concealed having two passports. He said that, over the past fourteen years, he had been paying taxes in Switzerland and, prior to that, in Finland. "I scrupulously transfer to Russia the monies I owe to the Russian budget. In theory, I could have cut down the transfers citing the rule on inadmissibility of dual taxation but I never did this – I realized the proceeds that my monies were going off in wages to Russian doctors, teachers, and the military while I was not going to go bankrupt under any circumstances. I wouldn’t get poor if I shared the budget with others." The US Department of Treasury announcement of individuals under sanctions due to the 2014 Crimean crisis lists him as the citizen of Russia, Finland, and Armenia.

In addition to business assets, Timchenko, according to media reports, also owns a property in Geneva, Switzerland, which consists of just over 1 ha of land, an internal area of 341m². According to the Land Registry Office of Geneva, the purchase price of the property was SFR 8.4m (at the time of purchase in 2001 – about US$11m).

Timchenko likes to play and watch tennis. Through his formerly-owned Finnish company, IPP, he has sponsored an outdoor tennis tournament in Finland since 2000, the IPP Open. According to unconfirmed reports he funded the Finnish national team in the Davis Cup and has sponsored a number of Russian tennis players.

In a The Wall Street Journal interview, Timchenko said that in 1999 he gave up Russian citizenship and became a Finnish citizen.

His income, according to the Finnish tax authorities, increased tenfold from 1999 to 2001. In 2001, he declared an income of EUR 4.9m. Because of his high taxes, Timchenko moved to Switzerland in 2002.

In 1998 Timchenko co-founded the Yawara-Neva Judo Club.

In 1997, he co-founded the global commodity trading company Gunvor with Swedish businessman Torbjörn Törnqvist. He sold Törnqvist his stake in March 2014, a day before the US sanctions.

In 1995, Urals Finland Oy was renamed International Petroleum Products Oy (IPP), and Timchenko became first deputy and then CEO of IPP OY.

In 1991, Timchenko decided to leave Russia and was hired by a Finland-based company, Urals Finland Oy, specializing in importing Russian oil to Europe. He settled in Finland and became a Finnish citizen.

In 1988, when Russia started to liberalize its economy, he was promoted to Deputy Director of state-owned oil company Kirishineftekhimexport, which had been created in 1987 based on the Kirishi refinery, one of the three largest refineries in the RSFSR. Timchenko's teams set up some first export routes of oil products from the USSR to Western countries and Timchenko became one of the leading figures of the Russian oil trading industry.

From 1982 to 1988, he worked as a senior engineer of the Ministry of Foreign Trade.

In 1977, Timchenko started to work as an engineer for the Izhorsky plant near Saint Petersburg, which specialized in building power generators. Since he spoke German, he was then moved to the trade department of this state-owned company.

Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko (Russian: Генна́дий Никола́евич Ти́мченко , also spelled Guennadi Timtchenko; born 9 November 1952) is a Russian oligarch and billionaire businessman. He founded and owns the private investment group, Volga Group, which specializes in investments in energy, transport and infrastructure assets. Previously he was a co-owner of Gunvor Group. In 2019, Timchenko was ranked 42nd on the Forbes magazine billionaires list, with an estimated fortune of US$22.7 billion. He is known for being the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kontinental Hockey League, and President of the SKA Saint Petersburg ice hockey club. He is a citizen of Russia, Finland and Armenia. He is a honorary consul of Serbia in Saint Petersburg.

Timchenko was born in Leninakan, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union (now Gyumri, Armenia), in 1952. His father was in the Soviet military and fought alongside Russian Forces in the second world war. He spent 6 years of his childhood (from 1959–1965) in the German Democratic Republic (and learnt German) and in the Ukrainian SSR. In 1976, he graduated from the Mechanical Institute of Saint Petersburg, then named Leningrad, as an electrical engineer, according to a 2008 interview with the Wall Street Journal.