Over the past decade, businessman Vladimir Potanin regularly found himself in the top ten richest people in Russia according to Forbes magazine. Until 2013, he also remained a rare example of constancy and fidelity in his personal life. With his wife Natalya, the billionaire lived for more than 30 years and got three children. However, after the start of a scandalous divorce with his wife, accompanied by litigation over the division of property, the image of the ideal family man crumbled overnight. Moreover, having barely received the desired freedom, Potanin again tied the knot.
First wife
The businessman met his first wife Natalya Varlamova in his school years, they lived in neighboring houses of a small microdistrict Davydkovo. Mutual sympathy and romantic relationships turned into a family. The Potanins married in 1983 shortly after graduation. The newlyweds settled in a three-room apartment of Natalya's parents. In the same year, Vladimir graduated from the Economics Department of MGIMO and began his career. In 1984, his wife gave him his first child - daughter Anastasia.
For 30 years of family life, a businessman never once gave the press a reason to doubt the strength of their marriage ties. When other rich men got divorced and changed wives to younger daughters, Potanin remained faithful to his school love. From their joint photographs, occasionally accessed by the Internet, it blew warmth and tenderness. In addition to the eldest daughter, the couple had two sons - Ivan in 1989 and Vasily in 2000.
In the early years of family life, Natalia worked on a par with her husband. She graduated from the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers and worked at the USSR Ministry of Construction. When Potanin’s business went uphill, he moved to his Interros Estate company, and was involved in architectural and construction issues. But all these years, Natalya’s main concern has been family and children. She lived their hobbies, created for her husband a strong reliable rear and coziness, where he could rest from the exhausting struggle in the merciless world of business.
The spouse admitted that Vladimir Potanin was always quite tough and domineering person. However, she did not consider this a drawback, since she knew how to conduct a dialogue with him, and in many ways agreed with his line of behavior. For example, spouses from the very beginning tried not to pamper children, instilling in them a love of sport and independent work. No wonder the senior heirs - Anastasia and Ivan - in their youth were seriously engaged in jet skiing (jet ski racing). The Potanins' children won many awards in this sports discipline, became champions of Russia and the world.
Of course, the spouses had quarrels, moments of misunderstanding, clarification of relations. Once, according to Natalia’s recollections, her husband even suggested she get a divorce, but then he quickly cooled down. The real breakup was never discussed until one fateful evening in November 2013.
Divorce
Talking about the day when her family began to fall apart, the ex-wife of Potanin reproduces what happened in almost a minute. It was a Sunday evening, November 17, 2013. By tradition, the family gathered for dinner at their residence in Luzhki. When the children left their parents at the table, Vladimir in an ultimatum form announced to his wife a divorce. Natalia, she said, experienced a real shock. In addition, the husband demanded the immediate signing of papers on the refusal to share property. In return, he offered material assistance, real estate, and tuition fees for his youngest son. True, all the promises were only in words.
After such a vile and unexpected blow, Natalia realized that she could not trust him. She asked Vladimir to wait for a divorce, as she flew with her son to the United States, where he was to study, and wanted to save the child from unnecessary stress before exams. Alas, in the evening before leaving, they brought her a subpoena regarding the divorce.
Thus began the long-standing lawsuit of one of the richest businessmen in Russia with his wife, who was nearby and supported him in all 30 years. When it came to dividing the property, it turned out that formally Potanin almost did not belong. The most important assets are registered through trust funds scattered around the world. Natalia went through many court hearings in Russia and abroad. At first, Vladimir claimed in court that they had not been cooperative since 2007, but his wife presented evidence to the court refuting these arguments. On the contrary, until the moment of the official separation, the couple went on family vacations, celebrated holidays, as evidenced by photographs, videos from the personal archive and testimonies of witnesses.
Unfortunately, the exhausting struggle with her ex-husband ended in complete collapse for Natalia. She was refused by the courts of all instances, and after the divorce, she received only an insignificant share of the property of the billionaire. But most of all, the woman was upset by Potanin's attitude to her own children. With his youngest son, he completely broke off relations, causing the teenager severe psychological trauma. The father completely dismissed the senior heir from work in one of his subsidiaries when he made an attempt to intervene in the divorce proceedings of his parents. Only the daughter managed to maintain normal relations with Vladimir, taking a neutral position in this dispute.
