Aven Petro Olehovič

From Russian Minister to the Inner Circle of the Kremlin

Born in Moscow in 1955. In 1992, he headed the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation in Yegor Gaidar's government and was the Russian president's representative liaising with G7 countries. After leaving the government, he became an advisor to billionaire Berezovsky and from 1994 was president of Alfa-Bank and a member of the supervisory board of Alfa Group. Aven was among the 50 richest entrepreneurs of Russia who regularly met with Putin—including on February 24, 2022, the day the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. He was sanctioned by the EU and the UK as a "close associate of Putin," involved in efforts to lift anti-Russian sanctions after 2014.

Latvian Passport as a Shield

Aven obtained Latvian citizenship in 2016 through his Latvian grandfather and passed the language exam. In 2012, he was awarded the Latvian Order of the Three Stars—after the invasion, the order’s chapter revoked his award. Despite EU sanctions, in December 2022 Aven legally visited Latvia; holding a Latvian passport preserved his right to enter the EU freely. The Latvian Security Service initiated a review to revoke his citizenship. Together with Fridman, via the Luxembourg holding ABH Holdings, he filed a lawsuit against Ukraine for over one billion dollars—demanding compensation for the nationalization of Sense Bank.