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Russian Billionaire Owner of Moscow Soccer Club Hospitalized With Covid

Russian Billionaire Owner of Moscow Soccer Club Hospitalized With Covid

(Bloomberg) -- Leonid Fedun, a billionaire shareholder at Russia’s second-biggest oil producer, has been hospitalized with a coronavirus diagnosis as the epidemic spreads rapidly throughout the country.

Fedun is Russia’s 17th richest man, with a fortune of $6.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and the first Russian on that list to publicly confirm he’s ill with the disease. His Spartak Moscow soccer club, where he serves as chairman, published a three-sentence statement about his health on its website Thursday. Lukoil PJSC, the oil producer in which Fedun and his family hold about 12%, declined to comment.

Russian Billionaire Owner of Moscow Soccer Club Hospitalized With Covid

Russia surpassed Germany in its total number of infections on Thursday, adding more than 11,000 new diagnoses for a total of 177,160. Despite President Vladimir Putin’s order for much of the country to stay at home since the end of March, it now has the sixth-highest number of coronavirus cases globally.

Russia is contending with fallout from coronavirus-related shutdowns as well as the epidemic’s impact on demand for oil, its most important export. Economic activity has contracted by a third since the lockdown began, while tax collection collapsed 30% in April as the price of Brent crude fell to the lowest in nearly two decades.

Russian Billionaire Owner of Moscow Soccer Club Hospitalized With Covid

Fedun is Lukoil’s largest shareholder after Chief Executive Officer Vagit Alekperov. He is in charge of the company’s strategic development and was a rare Russian oil executive who was openly critical of policy after Putin walked away from a deal with OPEC to limit production in March. The ensuing price war with Saudi Arabia lasted just five weeks before Putin agreed to new curbs on output amid an unprecedented oil rout.

Fedun likened the deal to the “humiliating and difficult” pact the Bolsheviks signed in 1918 to end Russia’s participation in World War I.

While Fedun is the first Russian billionaire with Covid-19, the country’s political elite has not been spared. Three government ministers, including Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, have been diagnosed with the disease.

The cases have highlighted the Kremlin’s failure so far to stem the spread of the virus. Putin’s attempt to shift responsibility for tackling the epidemic to regional governors hasn’t stopped his approval rating from falling to the lowest since he ascended to power in 2000. On Thursday, he urged local officials to move cautiously when easing restrictions as economic pressure builds for people to get back to work, amid concerns the surge in cases may lead to an eventual spike in deaths.

Russia boasts one of the lowest death rates from Covid-19 in the world, leading government critics to claim that it is withholding data. Russia has one-fifth the number of deaths as Germany despite more cases.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin estimated Thursday that around 300,000 people in the capital have coronavirus, or more than three times the official number. He has extended many lockdown measures to May 31 and ordered people to wear masks and gloves on public transport, warning that the city won’t return to normal life anytime soon.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.