Ziyavudin Magomedov

Ziyavudin Gadzhievich Magomedov (Russian: Зиявудин Гаджиевич Магомедов, born 1968) is a former Russian oligarch whose rapid rise in wealth between 2008 and 2010, followed by his sudden arrest in 2018, has been widely linked to the rise and fall of the so-called "Medvedev clan".

Magomedov amassed a business empire during presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, who stood in for Vladimir Putin from 2008 to 2012. According to Finance magazine, in a single year between 2009 and 2010, Magomedov's fortune grew more than elevenfold – from $70 million to $800 million. Between 2008 and 2018, his Summa Group was described as “one of the least transparent conglomerates in Russia" and primarily operated in sectors requiring government licenses and approvals. According to most media outlets and independent analysts, Ziyavudin relied heavily on his long-standing and close friendship with Arkady Dvorkovich, a key economic advisor to President Medvedev. He was also closely associated with Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov and Gennady Timchenko, a close friend of Putin since the early 1990s and one of Russia's richest oligarchs.

These connections enabled Magomedov to secure major assets and lucrative government contracts. In 2011, Summa and Transneft took control of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port in a deal widely criticized for its lack of transparency. Between 2008 and 2011, his companies received 226 billion roubles (approximately $7.7 billion at the average exchange rate) in government contracts, earning him fourth place on Forbes’ "Kings of State Contracts" list in 2012. That same year, he appeared for the first time in Forbes’ list of Russia's 200 richest businessmen, ranking 131st. He remained on the list until 2018, with his wealth peaking at $1.4 billion in 2017.

Key Russian opposition activists and political prisoners, including Alexei Navalny and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, have accused Magomedov of paying multimillion-dollar bribes by renting or purchasing super-yachts for high-profile Russian officials, including Dmitry Peskov and Vladimir Putin himself. In 2022, Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation included Magomedov in its "6,000 List" of enablers of the Russian invasion of Ukraine labeling him an "individual involved in corruption" and citing his payment for a honeymoon yacht trip for Dmitry Peskov's family.

In March 2018, Ziyavudin Magomedov was arrested in Russia along with his business partner and brother, Magomed Magomedov, a former Russian senator. Kremlin representatives claimed the arrest was ‘part of the Russian government's efforts to fight corruption’. Magomedov's lawyers framed it as persecution "under politically motivated circumstances". However, most media outlets and analysts saw the arrest as part of high-level elite infighting – specifically, a crackdown on the so-called "Medvedev clan," which had been losing influence since Medvedev ceded the presidency to Putin in 2012. Magomedov was one of several oligarchs and senior officials associated with Medvedev's circle who were arrested, removed from office, or fled the country between 2013 and 2019. Others included his cousin Akhmed Bilalov, former Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Abyzov, and former Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov. The late prominent anticorruption activist, Russian opposition leader, and political prisoner Alexei Navalny also refrained from characterising Magomedov's arrest as political persecution, instead describing it as "merely one set of corrupt officials and fraudsters outmaneuvering another group of corrupt officials and fraudsters." Magomedov was sentenced in 2022 to 19 years in prison, later reduced to 18 years and 6 months.

In 2023, Magomedov sued TPG, DP World and Transneft in London for $13.8 billion, alleging a Kremlin-led asset grab. The claim was one of the largest ever filed in the London's High Court. The case was dismissed in 2025. He plans to appeal.