Andrei Melnichenko — businessman with roots in the USSR
Andrei Melnichenko is a Belarusian-born Russian billionaire who founded EuroChem (fertilizers) and SUEK (coal), two of Russia's largest industrial conglomerates. He is known for his record-breaking sailing superyacht A and motor yacht A — two of the largest privately owned vessels in history. He was sanctioned following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Tracing the roots — Gomel (Belarus)
Born in Gomel, Byelorussian SSR in 1972, Melnichenko rose from banking to industrial empire-building in the chaotic post-Soviet 1990s. Swiss resident for over two decades, he has maintained one of the most significant industrial presences in Russian agribusiness and energy through his Swiss holding structures.
Gomel (Belarus). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.