Russia’s fertilizer king addresses life after Putin

Hello! This week we dive into the hottest political intrigue in Moscow right now: a major intervention in The Economist by billionaire Andrei Melnichenko on what Russia could look like after Putin.

Melnichenko’s Russia of the future: Kremlin talking points or a bid for power?

Andrei Melnichenko is one of the richest men in Russia — eighth by Forbes’ last count — and the owner of one of the world’s biggest fertilizer producers, Eurochem. At the end of last week, The Economist published a profile of him and an essay penned by him — the result of three months and dozens of hours of conversations. Russian billionaires under sanctions rarely share their thoughts on the country’s future, even less so in Western liberal publications. That fact alone led outside observers to catch more than just a whiff of personal political ambition in Melnichenko’s words.