Former First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia; Chairman of Interros, Interros
Search every verified Vladimir Potanin interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a 2021 interview, Vladimir Potanin discussed his approach to philanthropy, stating that he began charitable work long before establishing his foundation over twenty years ago. He described his view that philanthropy should be systematic and effective, focusing on addressing problems the state does not or cannot solve, rather than competing with it or attempting to eradicate social ills entirely. Potanin emphasized the importance of listening to real needs, measuring results, and adapting world-class cultural institutions to the Russian context rather than imposing foreign models. In a 2019 interview, Potanin, as CEO of Norilsk Nickel, expressed belief in digital technologies for tokenizing products and improving efficiency, noting interest from Chinese, Arab, European, and American investors. Regarding trade tensions, he said he disagreed that commodities are the first to suffer and argued that technology exchange suffers most. Asked about U.S. sanctions, Potanin stated he was not worried, saying "I did nothing wrong," and that any sanctions would not benefit anyone. On Russian leadership, he described Vladimir Putin as "a symbol of stability" for Russia and said he would vote for continuity, though he noted he is not a politician and does not know how to arrange that.
“First, I must say that although the foundation has existed for a little over twenty years, I began doing charitable work long before that.”
“We created an endowment and special programs to help others — there was and still is a targeted program and an endowment supporting our work.”
“We do not aim to replace the state or compete with it; we try to address problems that the state does not or cannot solve.”
“Philanthropy cannot pretend to eradicate everything — we cannot root out social ills completely, but we can help people and improve circumstances a little.”
“This work taught me to listen to people — not to act only on personal preferences but to respond to real needs.”
“We must measure what philanthropy achieves, set clear indicators and be accountable for results rather than acting by intuition alone.”
“The more we learn about the world, the more we want to adapt world‑class museums and cultural institutions to our context; I don't like simply imposing foreign models on our culture.”
“As wealthy people and benefactors, we should not flaunt our money or set out to 'compete' on sheer financial scale; the goal is effectiveness, not show.”
“I need to say that I believe in digital technologies because they not only allow industrial companies to digitize their operations and their sales, but also tokenize their products or services and present it to the market in a more efficient way with lower transaction costs.”
“It also opens an opportunity to collect big data on the basis of digitalization of our operations which may help us in the future to improve algorithms of our decisions in management and logistics.”
“More or less everybody is interested in those technologies — consumers, industrial companies, governments — Chinese investors, Arab investors and others are very much interested in that, and I also had quite a series of conversations with European and American banks and financial companies.”
“Being a businessman I'm more focused on creating things and the 'war' terminology is something which is not making me excited; not really — I disagree with those who say that commodities are first to suffer because of China issues or growth. I think that technology, the exchange of technology, suffers in the first plac...”
“You're on the so-called Kremlin list by the U.S. Treasury people — are you worried about that? Not really. I did nothing wrong.”
“As to Rusal being sanctioned, theoretically it might create some problems for participation in Norilsk Nickel, but it doesn't create it for the time being and our shareholders' agreement allows us to execute our plans at least until it ends up in 2023, which means for our short-term and mid-term planning it doesn't rea...”
“Any kind of war, any kind of sanction will not benefit anyone in the world — we do something which people need us to do and we will continue.”
Jun.06 -- Vladimir Potanin, chief executive officer at Norilsk Nickel, discusses digital technology in the commodities market, the impact of trade on his company, the threat of U.S. sanctions, and the leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He speaks with Bloomberg's Annmarie Hordern on "Bloomberg Markets."
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