10:05:14Suleiman Kerimov

Putin dismantled the intrinsically most powerful Russian tycoonHe scored his team a stir, sent the global fertilizer industry and the German Kaliriesen K + S on a downward slide. But then it forfeited Suleiman Kerimov with Putin. By Eduard Steiner

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Photo: REUTERSSuleiman Kerimov at a football match Anzhi Makhachkala his club in his home region of Dagestan. He led him into the Europa LeagueRELATED LINKS

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TOPICS Vladimir Putin Millionaires and billionaires Russia - Economy Oligarchs

Under Russia's billionaire tycoons there are those who talk little. And then there are those, who do not talk. At least with the public. If they wanted to be rich in peace, they bought - often at the Pump - securities. If they wanted to make a name for himself, without opening his mouth, they bought into one or the other group.Rather would they sponsored an athlete, sometimes quite a sport or a football club, with which they could demonstrate their commitment to society, or that they indirectly hoped those fame she achieved only rarely in direct business - let alone of the pretty business-hostile society Russia get indulged.Suleiman Kerimov Also, do not talk. Repeated requests for an interview were consistently unsuccessful in the past few years, if they were ever answered. Hidden behind rimless spectacles and after a two-week beard, he exchanged at most of his followers.

Time on one of his yachts, sometimes in one of its aircraft. Time in the corridors of the Kremlin, where those extended arms worked that the welfare and prosperity of his company empire guaranteed.Just so but it's over. Out of the blue, the 48-year-old father of three children, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at $ 6.8 billion, now disappeared from the ranks of the top Russian tycoons, although he is also Senator in the Upper Chamber of Parliament in personal union .Especially its 21.75 percent share of the world's largest potassium Company Uralkali , which he had bought in 2010 and with whom he had sent in 2013 worldwide potassium industry into a tailspin, he gave up at the behest of the Kremlin to his genehmeren business partner Mikhail Prokhorov.

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Unauthorized oligarchKerimov was notably not expropriated in contrast to earlier oligarchs, but only stopped for sale. $ 5.4 billion, he negotiated with Prokhorov. His shares in one of the largest real estate developers in Russia he came from for $ 468 million.Only in Russia's largest gold producer Polyus Gold for the time being he remains with 40.22 percent shareholder, although he unconfirmed, according to Russian business newspaper "Vedomosti" market rumored since the fall seeking a buyer for it. Where this is not to sell his shares, then maybe at least for delisting from the London Stock Exchange.Because of EU sanctions against Russia namely have Russian officials are those domestic companies that are traded on the London Stock Exchange, last visited, think about a return to Moscow. Russian media mentioned in this context particularly often Polyus Gold.It was not necessarily arrogance that came before the sharp drop of Suleiman Kerimov. But certainly to large-handedness. It is this result that he all the potassium industry worldwide tore the end of July 2013, the depth - including the German producers and Dax Group K + S. Within a day, the world lost a total of 20 companies billions of dollars in market capitalization. The price of the K + S share broke within one week by more than 40 percent.What had happened? Kerimovs operational Adlatus and Uralkali CEO Vladislav Baumgertner announced out of the blue that Uralkali from the cartel-like sales alliance BPC, the Uralkali for eight years made jointly with the Belarusian group Belaruskaly and

the one controlled 43 percent of the world market for potassium, gets out. It would henceforth move away from the strict focus on price and rely on the increase in sales volumes, it said.Against the powerful dictatorThe price drop from 400 to 272 dollars per tonne him from the pitch.The industry also horror. Finally, the market for potassium, which is in addition to nitrogen and phosphate one of the main components of fertilizers, largely dominated by cartels.Kerimov had the bill but without the greatest host made: Alexander Lukashenko, in his last dictator in Europe and president of Belarus.Economically already on shaky ground, Belarus is heavily dependent on the income of its state-owned company Belaruskaly. In the global marketing of its products Lukashenko Group has always been dependent on the Russians in the distribution alliance.Moreover, he feared not entirely wrong to conclude that Kerimov could snatch him his vital group. Lukashenko's anger over Kerimovs alone, therefore, was not long at: In August he lured Baumgertner for an interview to Belarus, had him arrested for alleged abuse of power without further ado. And the same also applied for an international arrest warrant against Kerimov itselfSince then, the Kremlin also attracted the ripcord and Kerimov began to dismantle because Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin was not ready to throw on for a tycoon with the neighboring country.Bought with bank loans, the BankHis instinct for good business Kerimov acquired in his birthplace. In the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea, which is now much more uncertain than Chechnya, he studied economics and earned his first money with the sale of transistors.Later he found himself in the oil trade, where he founded the company Nafta Moskva. After the turn of the millennium, he gradually began to mutate by the trader to the financial investor. With billions in credit of the largest Russian Sberbank money house he bought shares in this institution itself as well as the gas company Gazprom and so made billions.It was the time when the Russian tycoons with power only so abounded, is enjoyed a status symbol after the other concerned and their economic success. In the middle of this phase came for Kerimov, however, the first damper when he with his Ferrari speeding crashed in late 2006 in Nice in a tree and severely injured for two months in the hospital was.Kerimov but came back on their feet. In 2008, he sold nearly all his Russian investments and bought with a whopping nearly 20 billion dollars in Western investment banks - including in the German Bank- a.The outbreak of the financial crisis of 2008 destroyed a large part of his money. But Russian state banks rushed to help and refinanced most loans. So Kerimov recovered within a few years by this second blow.Market observers joined his renewed resurgence with its proximity to the then Interim President Dmitry Medvedev.Finally also a private soccer clubIt was noticeable that Kerimov gradually stepped out of the darkness at that time. Had he previously sponsored the Caucasian heavyweight boxer Sultan Ibragimov, so he took over in 2011 the club Anzhi Makhachkala football in his home region of Dagestan and led him into the Europa League.Kerimov demonstrated generosity - hired the Brazilian star Roberto Carlos, bought Samuel Eto'o from Inter Milan for 27 million euros hired the renowned Dutch coach Guus Hiddink. And he gained political influence in the Caucasus, where he rose to become the largest investor.

But this run was short-lived. Last year, all the stars left the club. Just like the shares of his company was Kerimovs star again on the wane.He retired from the sport and was eventually left alone by the Kremlin during his fight with Lukashenko.Putin the moment also used to disassemble a whole clan, explains Leonid Zaiko, director of the Belarusian Center for Economic Analysis "Strategija". In fact, not only was Kerimov itself, but also the President of the Republic of Dagestan unrest, Kerimovs man in the Caucasus, withdrawn from circulation.The situation in Dagestan but since then has not been better. On the contrary: by the terrorist attacks that have recently been perpetrated again because of the Winter Olympics in nearby Sochi, also Dagestan came as Islamist hotbed to the attention of authorities in Moscow.These last were wondering: What to do about the hopeless lack of jobs in the region, which is the cause of the tragedy? And what to do in a region that are already investing only descendants of this area ready?So last was also Kerimov means being able to make so useful that he invested the money he has benefits form from the sale of its industrial units in Dagestan. In a sense, a suicide mission. But Kerimov has had, according to the Russian newspaper "Kommersant" inquire via acquaintances in the Kremlin, what he could do to get back to be a tycoon of Putin's grace. Since then he is silent again.