Potanin Vasily Vladimirovich

Potanin Vasily Vladimirovich

Vasily Potanin is the youngest son of Interros President Vladimir Potanin from his first marriage with Natalia Potanin.

2014: Emigration to USA

Vasily moved to America in 2014, studied first at Friends Academy in New York, then at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, and in 2022 received a double degree in business administration with an emphasis on finance and a bachelor's degree in economics from the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at the same Carnegie Mellon University ellon.

2019: Purchase of a house in Pittsburgh for $1.24 million

In 2019, Vasily bought a house in Pittsburgh at a cost of $1.24 million in the Sheideside area, a 10-minute walk from the university. Rich Americans who traditionally support Democrats live in the city. Vasily adheres to other views and demonstrates this with his tablets in the yard. As Potanin Jr. himself told the local edition of TribLIVE, he reads The Wall Street Journal and gladly listens to Ben Shapiro's podcast, which ridicules the Democrats. Vasily Potanin does not have American citizenship, he cannot vote in the elections, however, he actively expresses his political position.

On the site in front of his house the plate with the image of the ex-U.S. President Donald Trump and the inscription "Do Not You Miss Me Yet?" is established, and on a high silvery flagstaff the flag with the inscription "Went, Brandon" develops ("Let's Go Brandon" is the euphemism of obscene insult of the president Joe Biden in consonance with "F *** Joe Biden"). According to Potanin, his position caused rejection among some local residents, and his tablets were spoiled before the 2020 elections, but the pogroms did not reach.

He did not contact the police, just watched the situation. "The fact that people did not agree with me and desecrated my posters, but at the same time claimed that they were tolerant, there was some hypocrisy," the young man said in an interview with TribLIVE.

2022: Threats of neighbors

On March 17, 2022, the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh police tweeted that law enforcement officers were investigating several cases of harassment and intimidation against a male resident of the town. It followed from the message that the signs installed in the courtyard of the victim's house were mutilated by political and "anti-national" slogans, a bag of rice was thrown on the lawn in front of the house and verbal insults and threats were made to the victim.

Later it turned out that the injured unnamed resident of Pittsburgh is none other than the 23-year-old heir to the president of Norilsk Nickel, Vladimir Potanin.

The situation really escalated at the end of February 2022, after the start of the "special operation" of Russia in Ukraine. According to Potanin, the neighbors have attacked him several times. They not only ruined his signs on the site, but also threw a bag of rice on the lawn with a letter tied to it. In it, he was called an ally of President Putin and rudely recommended to leave for Russia. "People believe that because of my nationality, I should agree with everything that Putin does. So I have to support him, I'm his spy, I work for him. Their logic is perverse, "he said TribLIVE.

In the end, Vasily went to the police. After conducting a preliminary investigation, the police identified the people who pursued the young man. It was a couple of locals, Rob Pfaffman 66 years old and his wife Lisa Marie Haabestad 64 years old.

On February 24, the first day of the "special operation" in Ukraine, an angry entry appeared on Pfaffman's Facebook page: "Trump and Putin are oligarchs among us. Vladimir Potanin owns real estate in Sheideside, and his son is studying at Carnegie Mellon University! " Vasily Potanin is convinced that he is not persecuted because of his father, but simply because he is Russian.