Putin's former academic advisor is now a billionaire

Vladimir Litvinenko, the chancellor of the mining institute where Vladimir Putin defended his dissertation in 1997, is now a billionaire, says a new report by the newspaper Vedomosti.

In April 2017, Litvinenko raised his stake in the chemical holding company PhosAgro to 19.35 percent, making his shares worth an estimated $1.01 billion. According to Vedomosti, Litvinenko “received” his first PhosAgro stock in return for supporting state prosecutors in the criminal case against the oil company Yukos.

For many years, St. Petersburg Mining Institute Chancellor Vladimir Litvinenko has been one of the highest paid administrators in Russian higher education. In 2016, he declared an income of 195.5 million rubles ($3.3 million). The next university administrator on this list earned less than a third of this salary.