After marrying Putin's daughter in 2013, Shamalov was offered numerous lucrative and preferential business deals worth billions of dollars.[4][5] He became Russia's youngest billionaire at the age of 32.[5] Shamalov is a director and part-owner of Sibur, a Russian petrochemicals company. Shamalov's 21% stake in the company is reportedly worth $2 billion.[3] The price for the stake and the circumstances behind the acquisition of the stake are unclear.[3] Immediately after marrying Putin's daughter, he obtained a 3.8% stake (valued at $388 million) in the company for $100.[4][5]
After graduating at the age of 25, Shamalov was given an executive position at Gazprom-Media, Russia's largest media holding company.[5]
Shamalov became an industry leader in 2012 when the owners of Sibur promoted him from Vice President of Business Administration to Deputy CEO. Shamalov owned a 0.5% stake in the company, while in June 2013 his offshore company Kylsyth Investments Limited based in Belize acquired a 3.8% stake in the company for only US$100.[5][10] In August 2014, his Russian company Yauza 12, with the help of a loan from Gazprombank, purchased an additional 17% of Sibur from Gennady Timchenko, owner of Sibur, for roughly $2.2 billion.
According to the OCCRP, Shamalov owned a vast network of offshore companies by 2013.[5]
In April 2017, Bloomberg reported that Shamalov sold his shares of Sibur that he purchased from Timchenko to Leonid Mikhelson, the other owner of Sibur.[11]
In April 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on him and 23 other Russian nationals.[12][13] Since his February 2013 marriage to Vladimir Putin's daughter Katerina and joining the elite billionaires group close to Vladimir Putin, Shamalov had become a major shareholder in Sibur in less than 18 months and a year later had received a billion dollar loan from Gazprombank, which was under United States sanctions (EO 13662), and had purchased a 17% stake in Sibur from Gennady Timchenko, who was under United States sanctions (EO 13661).[14]
In February 2013, Shamalov married Katerina Tikhonova, Putin's second daughter, at Igora, a small ski resort near Sosnovo in the Leningrad Oblast.[5][17] In January 2018, Shamalov and Tikhonova separated. He allegedly lost 50% of his wealth due to this separation.[11]
Later in 2018, Shamalov reportedly married Zhanna Volkova (Russian: Жанна Волкова).[18][19] They have a daughter. The couple separated in mid-2021 and are in the midst of divorce proceedings. Shamalov filed a lawsuit to dismiss their marriage as invalid.[20]
Shamalov owns millions of dollars worth of real estate in Russia and France.[5] On 14 March 2022, two Russian activists were arrested for breaking into and occupying Shamalov's villa in Biarritz, France; the activists had announced they intended to use the property to house Ukrainian refugees from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[21]
