Potanin was one of several Russian billionaires who helped fund the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. He invested $2.5 billion (R37 billion) in a ski resort.
While working at the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Potanin masterminded the"loans-for-shares" program that would go on to become the source of many oligarchs' wealth.
Russian billionaires and businessmen : Vladimir Potanin, Viktor Vekselberg, Roman Abramovich and Gennady Timchenko seen while visiting the Sirius education center for gifted children on July 19, 2016 in Sochi, Russia., wealthy entrepreneurs and banks loaned money to the Russian government in the 1990s in exchange for equity in the country's natural resource companies.
It was through this program that Potanin acquired Nornickel, which would make him the richest man in Russia at the time.