What is Vladimir Putin’s net worth?

As the EU’s embargo on Russian oil looks set to hit the Kremlin’s coffers hard, the personal wealth of its long-standing occupant is also under scrutiny.

Vladimir Putin has claimed to take only a modest government salary, but some believe he is really one of the richest people on Earth.

What is Putin’s declared wealth?

The Kremlin claims Putin earns an annual salary of $140,000, while his publicly disclosed assets include an 800-square-foot flat in St Petersburg, a trailer and three cars.

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… and his actual new worth?

According to Fortune, Putin’s personal assets could actually total $200bn, making him one of the richest people in the world.

Nor does he go to great lengths to hide the trappings of wealth. “Putin’s lavish lifestyle has regularly been on display,” said a UK Foreign Office press release in May announcing new sanctions on Russia. It talks of “reports exposing links” between Putin and a £566m yacht and the $1bn “Putin’s Palace”, a $1.4bn Black Sea mansion “officially owned” by the president’s close associate, Arkady Rotenberg.

Putin is often seen sporting high-end luxury watches that cost multiple times his supposed annual income.

How did he amass it?

“Putin’s wealth accumulation methods are relatively straightforward,” said Tony Ward, a fellow in historical studies at the University of Melbourne, writing for The Conversation.

According to Bill Browder, a US fund manager who worked in Russia and with Putin in the 1990s but has since become one of his most vocal critics, Putin amassed his vast wealth by using political clout to coerce Russians to simply hand over large chunks of their holdings to him.

In a testimony to the US Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017, Browder claimed that Putin amassed most of his wealth after a Moscow court jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003 for fraud and tax evasion.

“After Khodorkovsky’s conviction, the other oligarchs went to Putin and asked him what they needed to do to avoid sitting in the same cage as Khodorkovsky. From what followed, it appeared that Putin’s answer was, ‘Fifty per cent’. He wasn’t saying 50% for the Russian government or the presidential administration of Russia, but 50% for Vladimir Putin personally,” Browder told the committee.

How has he hidden his wealth?

While most agree his personal wealth runs well into the billions, “his actual net worth is a mystery no one can solve”, said Fortune.

Putin’s Russia has been described by Transparency International as a kleptocracy – or “rule by thieves”.

According to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss earlier this month, the Russian president “relies on his network of family, childhood friends, and selected elite who have benefited from his rule and in turn support his lifestyle. Their reward is influence over the affairs of the Russian state that goes far beyond their formal positions.”

In a rare glimpse into the personal finances of his inner circle, in 2016 the Panama Papers revealed a network of secret offshore deals and loans worth $2bn pointing to Putin.

“Though the president’s name does not appear in any of the records, the data reveals a pattern,” said The Guardian. “His friends have earned millions from deals that seemingly could not have been secured without his patronage.”

What impact will sanctions have?

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered a wave of economic sanctions that target Putin, his associates and now his adult children.

“But the system that built Putin’s riches has also frustrated US and European efforts to punish him,” reported USA Today. “Each round of sanctions raises new questions about whether those efforts can affect the man who treats the wealth of an entire nation as his own.”