MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's richest people saw their wealth rise by more than 8% to $625.5 billion over the past year, with at least 146 billionaires listed by the Forbes Russian-language list of the wealthiest people in Russia, the magazine said on Thursday.
Vagit Alekperov, former boss of the Lukoil oil company, topped the Forbes list for a second year, with a fortune of $28.7 billion. He resigned as president of Lukoil in 2022 after Britain imposed sanctions against him.
Alexei Mordashov took second place in the rating with wealth of $28.6 billion, rising from fourth place in last year's list.
Forbes said there were 15 completely new billionaires in the ranking, the richest of which was Indian-born Vikram Punia, owner of pharmaceutical company Pharmasyntez. Forbes said he had a fortune of $2.1 billion.
None of the billionaires listed by Forbes could be immediately reached for comment.
The richest 10 billionaires are listed below:
1) Vagit Alekperov - $28.7 billion
2) Alexei Mordashov - $28.6 billion
3) Leonid Mikhelson - $28.4 billion
4) Vladimir Lisin - $26.5 billion
5) Vladimir Potanin - $24.2 billion
6) Gennady Timchenko - $23.2 billion
7) Andrei Melnichenko - $17.4 billion
8) Pavel Durov - $17.1 billion
9) Alisher Usmanov - $16.7 billion
10) Suleiman Kerimov and family - $16.4 billion
(Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova; writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
