18 Facts About Viktor Vekselberg

Viktor Vekselberg is the owner and president of Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate.

Viktor Vekselberg was born in 1957 to a Ukrainian Jewish father and a Russian mother in Drohobych, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Viktor Vekselberg's father had gone off to war, while his neighbors hid his cousin in a pit-house for almost four years.

Viktor Vekselberg benefited financially from the privatization of the aluminum industry in Russia under the Yeltsin administration in 1993.

In 2008, Viktor Vekselberg proxied a deal between Russian and Hungarian governments, buying the former embassy building from Hungary for $21m and immediately selling it to the Russian government for $116m, while the market price of the building was estimated at $50m.

In 2010, Viktor Vekselberg was appointed President of the Skolkovo Foundation, a non-profit organization funded by a mix of private investors and the Russian government, with the goal of building a technology research hub in Russia.

In May 2010 Viktor Vekselberg reported that he would be relocating from Zurich to the Zug canton, a region of Switzerland that still supports the lump sum tax policy which was abolished by Zurich.

In March 2017, he was offered citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus due to his investments in the country; however, a spokesperson for Viktor Vekselberg reiterated that he only had Russian citizenship.

Viktor Vekselberg is one of many Russian "oligarchs" named in the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2017.

In February 2021, Viktor Vekselberg complained that more than $1.5 billion of his funds were frozen in American and Swiss bank accounts and that he was not allowed to send "small amounts" to charity.

On September 1,2022, several properties believed to be linked to Viktor Vekselberg were searched by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.

In March 2022, following Russia's invasion against Ukraine, the United States strengthened its sanctions and the UK, Poland and Australia placed sanctions on Viktor Vekselberg, thereby seizing his assets and imposing a travel ban.

In February 2004, Viktor Vekselberg purchased nine Faberge Imperial Easter eggs from the Forbes publishing family in New York City.

Viktor Vekselberg is the single largest owner of Faberge eggs in the world, owning fifteen of them.

Viktor Vekselberg donated $4.5 million to the construction of the $50 million Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow, and is the chairman of the museum's board of trustees.

In 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic began, Viktor Vekselberg donated 180 million rubles to buy medical equipment, personal protective equipment, and food for socially vulnerable groups of citizens.

Viktor Vekselberg is married to Marina and has two children, a daughter and a son.

Viktor Vekselberg identifies himself as multi-national and does not attend weekly synagogue or church services.