There are also practical reasons for so-called oligarchs to involve their children in business. Suleyman Kerimov, for example, ceded his controlling stake in Polyus PJSC, Russia’s largest gold miner, to his 23-year-old son Said, allowing the elder Kerimov to keep his seat in the upper house of parliament.
The financial elite are closely watching what happens with these interfamilial transactions, particularly at Sistema and, more strategically, Fedun’s Lukoil, which pumps about 2 percent of the world’s oil and operates across the globe, often in coordination with the state.
“This is a kind of pilot project,” said Ledeneva, the professor in London. “They’re starting by transferring small stakes to see what will happen, whether the system rejects or accepts the outcome and how business will be affected.”
Fedun declined to comment on what role, if any, he sees his children having at Lukoil now that they own a combined 2.3 percent of the company. Fedun’s older and richer partner, Vagit Alekperov, 68, has given his son about $76 million of stock, though he’s ruled out ever asking him to do the kinds of things he’s required to do as chairman and CEO of one of the biggest taxpayers and employers in the country.
The lifelong oilman told Bloomberg Television in 2017 that he planned to continue running Lukoil for another three to five years—the amount of time he predicted it would take to find and groom a successor.
“If I am asked if it will be my son, the answer is no,” Alekperov said. “This work is too challenging to bequeath to my son.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.