26 Facts About Petr Aven

Petr Olegovich Aven is a Russian oligarch, economist and politician who holds Latvian citizenship.

Petr Aven has met with Putin regularly, including soon after the Russian invasion in Ukraine.

Petr Aven is one of many Russian oligarchs named in the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, CAATSA.

In 2022, Petr Aven was included in EU sanctions imposed in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Petr Aven criticized the sanctions, alleging that they had been applied on a "spurious and unfounded basis," and filed a lawsuit in the European Court of Justice.

Petr Aven was born in Moscow, his father, professor of computer science Oleg Petr Aven, was half Latvian and half Russian, and his mother was from a Jewish family.

Petr Aven's paternal grandfather Janis Aven or Janis Avens was a Latvian rifleman.

Petr Aven graduated from Moscow State University in 1977 and holds a PhD in economics.

Petr Aven went on to become the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations for the Russian Federation, serving as Russia's representative to the Group of Seven and conducting a number of high-level trade and economic missions to Western capitals.

In October 1994, Petr Aven met Alfa Group's Mikhail Fridman, and soon became an Alfa-Bank shareholder serving as a member of the supervisory board of the Alfa Group Consortium.

In 2013, Petr Aven joined the Board of LetterOne Group, an international investment business founded by Mikhail Fridman and focused on the telecoms, technology and energy sectors.

In 2017 Petr Aven published The age of Berezovsky, the book about life of famous Russian business oligarch Boris Berezovsky.

For it Petr Aven interviewed many people who were familiar with Berezovsky, including Anatoly Chubais, Valentin Yumashev, Aleksandr Voloshin, Mikhail Fridman, Yuri Shefler and Demian Kudryavtsev.

On 28 February 2022, the European Union blacklisted Petr Aven and had all his assets frozen in relation to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In May 2022 Petr Aven's home was raided by officers from the National Crime Agency.

Petr Aven was sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 in relation to the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Since April 2006, Petr Aven has been a member of the board of directors of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

In 2007, Petr Aven became chairman of the Russia-Latvian Business Council.

Petr Aven has acted as a guest professor and lecturer at some universities, including Yale University, Bar-Elan University, and the University of Glasgow and has published two books on econometrics and on economic reform and numerous articles in Russian and international journals, including in Communist Economies and Economic Transformation in Economic Policy.

Petr Aven has received a number of international awards, including the best manager in the financial services sector in Russia in 2004 by Institutional Investor.

Petr Aven is a supporter of the arts and theatre in Russia.

Petr Aven's first art purchase was a still life by Pavel Kuznetsov in 1993, and afterwards he began collecting mostly pre-Soviet Russian art, as well as art by artists of other nationalities.

Petr Aven has been vociferous in his criticism of fake artworks from the school of Russian avant-garde.

On 3 November 2015, Petr Aven received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship in recognition of his contribution to corporate and public service to US-Russia relations, at the 2015 Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Awards Dinner.

In 2021 Petr Aven bought a building in the center of Riga to establish a museum for his collection.

Petr Aven is a trustee of the UK Royal Academy of Arts Development Trust.