Russia posted a historic 146 billionaires in this year’s Forbes rich list boasting a combined wealth of $625.5bn – a new record.

The number and net worth of Russia’s collected tycoons both increased despite the West efforts to sanction the men consider “close to Putin” and confiscate their assets. However, the campaign has gone poorly with only a total of $22bn of oligarch assets imponded – mostly luxury mega-yachts – while the bulk of their fortunes remain untouched.

Boris Kopeikin, deputy general director of the Center for Strategic Research, told TASS the figures point to a broader pattern of structural transformation and recovery in the Russian economy.

“The main conclusion from the analysis of the Forbes list is that the Russian economy is developing successfully,” he said.

Russia now ranks fifth globally in terms of the number of billionaires, behind only the United States, China, Germany and India. The latest list also includes 15 new Russian entrants, many of whom have built their fortunes in fast-growing sectors such as pharmaceuticals, information technology and food production – areas that have seen targeted efforts around domestic substitution and local manufacturing.

Kopeikin noted that the wealth gains were not limited to traditional commodity sectors. He pointed to logistics and supply chain infrastructure as examples of newer industries contributing to economic expansion and wealth creation.

“Along with the growth in the number of the super-rich in Russia, average salaries grew at an accelerated rate and the number of the poor decreased. Therefore, broad sections of the population benefit from ongoing economic growth,” he added.

The increase in billionaire wealth, combined with improvements in wage levels and a decline in poverty, suggests that Russia’s economic strategy is producing visible gains, even amid an evolving geopolitical landscape.

Lukoil founder Vagit Alekperov was recognized as the wealthiest Russian for the second year in a row with $28.7bn. E-commerce Wildberries CEO Tatyana Kim continues to top the Forbes list of Russia's richest women worth $4.6bn along with the president of Inteco Management Elena Baturina, the wife of late Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov now worth $1.3bn.

However, sanctions have had an effect, with 24 prominent names from earlier lists missing this year as they now list their country of residence somewhere other than Russia.

The founder of SUEK and EuroChem, Andrey Melnichenko, is listed as a billionaire from the UAE. The founder of the OTEKO holding, Michel Litvak, is also listed as a resident of this country. The founder of USM, Alisher Usmanov, is listed as a billionaire from Uzbekistan. The business partner of Lukoil founder Vagit Alekperov, Leonid Fedun and Dmitry Rybolovlev (Monaco) are now listed as entrepreneurs from Monaco, Vedomosti reported.

Israeli businessmen listed include Akron founder Vyacheslav Kantor, former head of Yandex Arkady Volozh, former Wimm-Bill-Dann shareholder Gavriil Yushvaev and former co-owner of Rambler Group Alexander Mamut. Eight businessmen listed Switzerland as their residence: Mikhail Prokhorov (Onexim), Egor Kulkov ( Pharmstandard ), Alexander Mikhalsky, Vladimir and Nikolay Fartushnyak (Sportmaster), Yuri Shefler (Amber Beverage Group Holding), Oleg Boyko (Finstar Financial Group, Rive Gauche) and Andrey Rappoport (co-founder of Alfa Bank and Skolkovo).

Sergey Lomakin and Artem Khachatryan (FixPrice), Gleb Fetisov (former senator and former owner of "My Bank") are now presented as businessmen from Cyprus. Alexey Kuzmichev (Alfa Group) is from France, Denis Shtengelov (KDV Group) is from Australia, Petr Aven (Alfa Bank) is from Latvia.