Alisher Usmanov

Alisher Usmanov had befriended Irina Viner, a rhythmic gymnastics trainer, in his youth. Years later, they rekindled their friendship and married in 1992. The couple does not have any children of their own but are parents to a son from Irina’s earlier marriage.

He owns several plush homes, including a Tudor mansion in the countryside of Surrey. He also has a Beechwood House set in a sprawling 11-acre property in Highgate, a suburb of London.

Alisher Usmanov was born on 9th September 1953 in Chust hamlet that fell under Ferghana Valley in Uzbekistan which was once a confederate state of the erstwhile USSR. His father served as a public prosecutor in the Uzbekistan capital, Tashkent where he spent his early years.

As a youngster, he was instinctively drawn towards fencing and went on to excel in the sporting discipline, though his portly form might belie the fact he was once a champion fencer. Nursing ambitions of becoming a diplomat, he relocated to Moscow during his youth and attended the Moscow State Institute for International Relations.

The ‘MSIIR’ was once a celebrated university reputed for producing extraordinarily regimented candidates for unquestioningly serving the totalitarian communist regimes in USSR. Alisher earned his graduation in ‘international law’ from the institution in 1976 and moved back to Tashkent to join as Director of the Soviet Peace Committee’s ‘Foreign Economic Association’.

It was while studying at MSIIR that he built numerous strategic associations, some of which he exploited later on to lay the foundations for a scintillating professional career. Usmanov has admitted to having taken advantage of his high-profile connections with KGB members for furthering his empire building designs.

Alisher Usmanov was once arrested for fraud regarding socialist property in ‘Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbek’ in 1980 and awarded a jail sentence of eight years; however, he was set free two years early. The Supreme Court of Uzbekistan, following the disintegration of USSR, overruled the original verdict, interjecting that the conviction was “unjust and…….that evidence was fabricated”.

By the time Alisher Usmanov was released from incarceration, Russia was unwittingly caught in the paroxysms of the twin forces of ‘glasnost’ (openness) and ‘perestroika’ (restructuring). He found himself back in the Russian capital, finalizing plans for establishing a plastic bag manufacturing firm in partnership with a KGB official.

By the time Alisher Usmanov was released from incarceration, Russia was unwittingly caught in the paroxysms of the twin forces of ‘glasnost’ (openness) and ‘perestroika’ (restructuring). He found himself back in the Russian capital, finalizing plans for establishing a plastic bag manufacturing firm in partnership with a KGB official.

He pooled all his accumulated assets to buy stakes in mining, steel, natural gas, timber, and electrometallurgical businesses. He founded the mining and metallurgy enterprise, ‘Metalloinvest’ by partnering with Vasiliy Anisimov and used it as a front company for overseeing his stakes in the metal sector.

Alisher Usmanov also created a trust company—USM Holdings—for monitoring his interests as an independent investo in iron and steel, mining and metallurgical, media, online technology, and pharmaceutical segments. Through ‘Metalloinvest’, he manages stakes in Ural Scrap Company, Ural Steel Mills, Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant, Mikhailovsky GOK, and Lebendinsky GOK.

Usmanov is a part owner of Norilsk Nickel, world’s leading producer of palladium and nickel and Nautilus Minerals. He fully owns the Baikal Mining Company that is involved in mining and extracting copper from one of the largest reserves in the world- Udokan Mine.

Alisher Usmanov took the sporting realm by storm in August 2007 when he acquired a 14.58% stake in Arsenal FC—an English soccer club based in Highbury, London. He and his business associate Farhad Moshiri invested a whopping £75 million to purchase the stake. A trust subsidiary, ‘Red and White Holdings’ was incorporated to fulfill the purchase formalities.

Within one month, Alisher’s ‘Red and White Holdings’ had augmented its stake in Arsenal FC to 23%. By the end of 2013, he held more than 30% of Arsenal FC’s shares.

Alisher helmed the Russian Fencing Federation as its president for eight years and was also the president of the ‘European Fencing Confederation’ from 2005-2009. He was voted the president of the ‘International Fencing Federation’ in the conclave at Paris in 2008.