In our article titled “Andrei Skoch 101: Who is the Russian Billionaire Businessman?” here at Zatrun.com, we will delve into everything you need to know in detail about Andrei Skoch, the Russian billionaire businessman that our readers are curious about.

Who is Andrei Skoch?

Andrei Vladimirovich Skoch is a Russian businessman who is one of the partners of the steel producer Lebedinsky Mining and one of the richest Russians on the billionaire’s list. According to the American Forbes Magazine, Skoch was included in The World’s Billionaires list in 2012. Skoch is a member of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and has held this position since 1999.

Andrei Skoch was born in 1966 in Nikolskoye village in the Moscow region and served in the Soviet Army in 1984. He studied at the Institute of Physical Culture and wrote his thesis there. In 1998, he graduated from the Psychology Faculty of Moscow State University of Humanities and Economics, formerly known as Moscow State Open Pedagogical University (MSOPU), named after M.A. Sholokhov.

Career Life

Andrei Skoch entered the business world in the 1980s by opening a bakery with Lev Kvetnoi. He later sold computer components and became the owner of fuel distribution companies. He served as Deputy General Director at “Kuznetsov and Partners LLC”. In 1995, he joined the capital and became Deputy General Director of the investment company “Interfin”. Before entering the metals business with Alisher Usmanov, he worked at MontazhSpetsBank. While working as a petroleum trader at the bank in 1995, Skoch met Usmanov. Along with Lev Kvetnoi, Usmanov’s first purchased companies were Lebedinsky Mining and a steel production plant in Belgorod.

In 1999, Skoch became the Deputy General Director of JSC Lebedinsky GOK. After Usmanov purchased Mikhailovsky GOK, he formed the Metalloinvest conglomerate in 2006. This merger also included Lebedinsky Mining, and Skoch continued to be a partner in the company. Andrei Skoch owns 30% of Metalloinvest, but it is said that the shares are registered in his father Vladimir’s name as claimed. In 2016, a list of parliamentarians mentioned in the Panama Papers was published, which included Skoch. In April 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on him and 23 other Russian citizens.

Political Career

Andrei Skoch entered the State Duma as a deputy for the Belgorod region in 1999, during the third term of the Duma. In 2000, he assumed the position of Chairman of the Council of Experts for the Metallurgy and Mining Industry. That same year, he defended his thesis titled “Charity as a Social Protection of Childhood in Russia.” In December 2003, he was re-elected as a deputy for the IV Duma. In December 2007, he was elected as a deputy for the V Duma on the United Russia party’s list.

Since 2012, he has been a member of the inter-factional deputy group for the protection of Christian values. He was elected as a deputy for the VI Duma in December 2011 and for the VII Duma in September 2016. Throughout his tenure as a State Duma deputy in the III, IV, V, VI, and VII terms, he has been a co-author of 163 legislative initiatives and changes to federal law drafts.

Personal Life

Andrei Skoch is the father of ten children, including quadruplets born in 1994, and has a daughter named Varvara. As of February 2022, he also has a grandchild. After being elected to the State Duma, Skoch transferred his stake in “Interfin” to his father, Vladimir Nikitovich Skoch. According to Forbes, Vladimir Skoch owns a stake in USM and also in Vnukovo Airport.

According to Bloomberg, Skoch’s net worth was $6.3 billion as of February 2021. He ranks 288th on Forbes’ World Billionaires List 2021, which estimates his family’s fortune at $8.6 billion. Skoch also owns a yacht called Madame Gu worth £100 million. He hired a British PR firm to take action against a website reporting on his yacht ownership. It was reported that he donated over $117 million towards the restoration of war memorials in Russia.

Philanthropy

Andrei Skoch has been organizing the international youth seminar called “New Generation” regularly since 2005. As of 2022, the seminar has been held 33 times. He is the founder of the Humanitarian Generation Foundation, which supports cultural workers and scientists, families with three or more children, World War II veterans, the elderly, and many others. The foundation also finances the construction of medical facilities in the Belgorod Oblast and provides financial support for the reconstruction and restoration of military cemeteries. In 2007, Skoch personally provided VAZ-2105 (3000 vehicles for 260 million rubles) to Great Patriotic War veterans in the Belgorod region.

In 2012, 51 new ambulances were donated to medical institutions in the Belgorod region by the Humanitarian Generation Foundation. That same year, the foundation carried out the restoration of the cemetery of Soviet army soldiers in Szekesfehervar and the Soviet section of the Kerepesi Cemetery in Budapest. During the restoration, thousands of soldiers from the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts were identified, and a monument was erected in the cemetery in Szekesfehervar.

In 2013, the foundation gifted VAZ-2104s to 180 large families in the Belgorod region. Skoch reportedly donated more than $117 million, some of which was dedicated to the restoration of war memorials in Russia. Through the Humanitarian Generation Foundation, Skoch sponsors the Debut Prize, a literary award for Russian writers under the age of 25.

Awards

Andrei Skoch has been awarded several times for his services in various fields. These include:

• Medal “For Merit to the Fatherland”, 2nd Class (November 14, 1998) – for his services in the social rehabilitation, protection of rights and interests of people with disabilities.
• Medal “For Services to the Fatherland”, 1st Degree (February 13, 2003) – for his achieved business success and years of dedicated work.
• Order of Honor (December 13, 2010) – for his significant contributions to preserving the memory of Russian and Soviet soldiers who died on the territory of the People’s Republic of China and for his active philanthropic activities.
• Order of Honor (South Ossetia, May 29, 2011) – for his great contribution to the development of friendship and cooperation between peoples and for his support provided to the people of the Republic of South Ossetia in the construction of socially significant facilities.
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (2016) – for his contribution to the restoration of monuments and memorials of Russian and Soviet soldiers in the Belgorod Region, China and Hungary.