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The Russian oligarchs (in , Romanized : oligarkhi) are prominent personalities of the business world, in connection with the political power, of the former Soviet republics which quickly became rich in the 1990s through privatizations that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. An associated and complementary term, but not reserved for prominent personalities, is that of who comes from the French "new rich" which is also called in Russia "New Russians". Historian Edward L. Keenan compares these oligarchs to the feudal system of powerful boyards that emerged in the late Middle Ages in Moscow's great rule.

Since the transition from the Russian economy to the market economy, including privatizations during President Boris Yeltsin's two terms of office, the terms "Oligarch" and "Oligarchy" (in Russian: , ) have replaced those of apparatchik and nomenklatura (, ) employed in the Soviet era.

The term is generally used in the Western press to describe Russian businessmen. According to a study by journalist Alan Macleod about his employment by the New York Times, CNN and Fox News, 98% of all reports of oligarch-related countries related to Russia (mostly) or to countries in the former Soviet Union, with American or European businessmen being very rarely called oligarchs.

Origin
The term oligarch is borrowed from ancient Greek, oligarch, of the same meaning, itself composed with the help of oligos, "infrequent", and arkhê, "command".

History
In 2013, Crédit Suisse estimates that 110 people own 35% of Russia's private wealth, or £263 billion out of £750 billion.

Some oligarchs such as Vladimir Potanine and Mikhail Fridman managed to retain their fortunes during the transition from the Yeltsin era to the Putin era, while preserving their influence. According to The Guardian, the others have been and are being replaced by a new generation, more faithful to power.

List of main oligarchs
This list includes persons generally considered to be Russian oligarchs:

Roman Abramovich, world fortune; former president of Chelsea football club; owner of the Château de la Croë at Cape Antibes;
Alexander Abromov; leader of Evraz ($8 billion, steel)
Vaguit Alekperov; Russian fortune; world fortune ($25 billion, oil); former CEO of Lukoil
Roman Avdeyev;
Petr Aven ($5.3 billion (Forbes 2021), oil, banking and telecoms); associate of Mikhail Fridman
Elena Batourina;
Boris Berezovski, protected by the United Kingdom and deceased in 2013, whose Russia has for several years requested extradition for various alleged crimes and offences, including "large-scale theft" of Aeroflot's assets, of which he was president;
Alexander Chokhin