Billionaire Melnichenko Donated 32 Billion Rubles to Putin’s Sirius Center After Prosecution Threat
Russian billionaire Andrei Melnichenko donated 32 billion rubles to Vladimir Putin’s Sirius educational center in 2023, shortly after the Prosecutor General’s Office moved to confiscate his company Sibeko. Two months later, prosecutors dropped their claims.
According to a report by The Economist, citing sources, one of Russia’s wealthiest individuals, Andrei Melnichenko, made a donation of 32 billion rubles to the Sirius educational center, founded on the initiative of President Vladimir Putin. The donation came after Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office initiated proceedings to seize Sibeko, a company linked to Melnichenko. Two months later, the prosecutors withdrew their claims.
As The Economist noted, 32 billion rubles is roughly the amount Melnichenko and his entities paid for Sibeko when they acquired it years earlier. In September 2025, BBC Russia reported that Melnichenko’s entity Kuzbassenergo had paid 32 billion rubles as part of a settlement agreement with the Prosecutor General’s Office. At the time, it was not known where the money went. Kuzbassenergo only stated that it had directed the funds toward “charity in the education and instruction of children.”
Melnichenko’s fortune is estimated at $20.4 billion; he ranks eighth on the Forbes Russia list. Other Russian businessmen have also made substantial donations to Sirius. After Uralkali director Vladislav Baumgertner was arrested in Minsk, Suleiman Kerimov, who owned the company, transferred about $100 million to the foundation.
The investigative outlet Proekt reported in 2022 that major entrepreneurs were required to contribute at least $1 million annually to Sirius’s budget.
