Vladimir Potanin Foundation

Vladimir Potanin, one of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs, has resigned from the board of the Guggenheim Museum, on which he served for two decades.

The museum issued a brief statement yesterday announcing the news.

“Vladimir Potanin has advised the board of trustees of his decision to step down as trustee effective immediately,” it read. “The Guggenheim accepts this decision and thanks Mr. Potanin for his service to the museum and his support of exhibition, conservationm and educational programs. The Guggenheim strongly condemns the Russian invasion and unprovoked war against the government and people of Ukraine.”

A month ago, Vladimir Potanin sat alongside the world’s financial and business elite on the advisory board of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations and among the trustees of the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan.

Those power circles, which included Tom Hill, the former Blackstone executive, and billionaires from Brazil and India, were cultivated over decades. Now, they’re closed off to Potanin, Russia’s richest man. Over the past two weeks, he’s dropped off both boards.

Vladimir Olegovich Potanin is a Russian business oligarch. He acquired his wealth notably through the controversial loans-for-shares program in Russia in the early to mid-1990s.