Cash income is not a virtual asset (which is sometimes hard to sell at an adequate price), but real money received from the sale of shares or dividends. Forbes calculated who among the Russian billionaires got the highest such income in 2016.

What happened to that money afterwards? And will the government count on 13% of this amount? The answer to the second question is no. The money, in most cases, is received not by a resident of Russia, but by a company registered in an offshore zone. Part of this money will return to Russia as an investment or for the payment of debts, the other part will be spent on the purchase of assets abroad and a small part for maintenance of personal property such as aircraft, yachts and houses.

How we calculated. Evaluation of income is the value of the assets sold and the dividends received by a billionaire or related companies during the period from February 13, 2016 to February 17, 2017. Income before tax was assessed. Deals and transactions in rubles were converted into dollars at the exchange rate at the time of the transaction or transactions. We did not take into account the sale of personal property and real estate.

1. Suleiman Kerimov and family

Evaluation of income: $3.1 billion

Source of income: the sale of shares of Polyus Gold International, parent company of Polyus Gold Holding

In March 2016 Polyus announced a share buyback program. The Company, through its subsidiary, bought back 60.2 million shares from the parent company Polyus Gold International for 4041 rubles per share, a premium of 22% to the weighted average price on the Moscow stock exchange for three months. The transaction amount exceeded 243 billion rubles (about $3.4 billion). Part of the funds received, $3.1 billion, Polyus Gold International spent to redeem its own shares in offshore companies Wandle Holdings Limited and Sacturino Limited, controlled by Said Kerimov, the son of Suleiman Kerimov. Repurchased shares have been canceled.

2. Mikhail Prokhorov

Evaluation of income: $2 billion

Source of income: the sale of shares in Uralkali, OPIN and Rusal, dividends of Rusal

In July 2016, Vedomosti newspaper published an article titled "Mikhail Prokhorov sells all Russian assets." The reason was the searches in the entities of Onexim, which were associated with the editorial policy of the RBC media holding owned by Prokhorov, who published investigations on the activities of persons from President Vladimir Putin's closest entourage. The same day, Director General of Onexim Dmitry Razumov reacted to the publication, stating that the company was currently negotiating the purchase and sale of assets, but to say "about the sale of all assets in Russia would be incorrect."

However, a week after the publication, Onexim sold 20% of Uralkali to Dmitry Lobyak, a course mate of Dmitry Mazepin, the owner of Uralkhim. In December, it was the turn of OPIN: the buyer was a company controlled by the co-owner of Moscow Credit Bank Roman Avdeev. Sale of Prokhorov's assets continued in 2017. In February, Onexim sold shares of Rusal for $240 million.

3. Gennady Timchenko

Evaluation of income: $1.5 billion

Source of income: Gunvor installment for the sale of shares, sale of shares of Petromir and National Media Group, dividends of Novatek and Sibur

In March 2016 the entities ofTimchenko sold 7.5% of the shares of National Media Group (Channel Five, Ren TV, share in First Channel, the Discovery TV channels in Russia, Izvestia newspaper and others.) to Gazprom Media Holding for 11.1 billion rubles.

In May 2016 the Financial Times reported that the owner of Gunvor Torbjorn Tornqvist received $1 billion of dividents from the company for the final payment to repurchase the sharesof  Timchenko. The transaction took two years: Timchenko announced the sale of his stake in Gunvor in March 2014, the day prior to the introduction of US sanctions.

4. Leonid Michelson

Evaluation of income: $1.46 billion

Source of income: the sale of shares of Sibur, dividends of Novatek and Sibur

In December 2016 the shareholders of Sibur (Michelson and top management) sold 10% of the company to Chinese Silk Road Fund. According to Michelson, the transaction corresponds to the sale of Sibur shares to another Chinese investor, Sinopec, which paid $1.3 billion for 10% of Sibur. 

5. Alexey Mordashov

Evaluation of income: $950 million

Source of income: dividends of Severstal, TUI, Nordgold, Metcombank sale

The main income of Mordashov are Severstal" dividends, where he is the largest shareholder (79.2%). In 2016, the company accrued more than 61 billion rubles of dividends on its shares. In February 2017 Mordashov received dividends from another company, of which he is a shareholder: about €80 million from the German tourist holding TUI.

6. Boris Mintz

Evaluation of income: $870 million

Source of income: sale of shares of CA Immobilien Anlagen, Immofinanz and Butuscheye Financial Group

In 2014-2015, Boris Mints's O1 Group bought 26% stake in the Austrian company CA Immobilien Anlagen, which owns office centers in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Mints's purchase cost €475 million. The investment was very profitable: in April 2016 O1 Group agreed to sell these shares to the Austrian Immofinanz holding company for €604 million.

In October, Buduscheye Financial Group combining NPF Buduscheye, Telecom-Soyuz and others, controlled by Mints, held an IPO on the Moscow stock exchange. O1 Group sold a 20% stake in Buduscheye FG for 11.7 billion rubles.

7. Vladimir Lisin

Evaluation of income: $820 million

Source of income: dividends and sale of shares in NLMK

In December 2016 the principal owner of NLMK Vladimir Lisin sold a small stake (1.5%) and earned $153 million, but the main income was provided by NLMK dividends: in the reporting period, the company paid its shareholders nearly 50 billion rubles, of which 42 billion rubles was the share of Lisin.

8. Sergey Galitsky

Evaluation of income: $600 million

Source of income: the sale of shares and dividends of Magnit

In the first quarter of 2016 the co-owner and chairman of Magniе board sold 3.2 million shares. And sold at a good price: the shares traded in between 10 000-11 000 rubles (after a few months against the backdrop of a slowdown in revenue growth of Magnit, the share price fell to 8000 rubles). Another 8.5 billion rubles Galitsky received in the form of dividends from the company.

9. Vagit Alekperov

Evaluation of income: $580 million

Source of income: dividends of Lukoil

In 2016, Lukoil paid dividends twice for a total amount of 159 billion rubles, of which Alekperov received about 36 billion rubles.

10. Vladimir Potanin

Evaluation of income: $550 million

Source of income: dividends of MMC Norilsk Nickel and the first tranche of the sale of shares Rambler & Co

In 2016 Norilsk Nickel paid dividends twice: for 2015 and the first 9 months of 2016. The total amount of accrued dividends amounted to almost 107 billion rubles, the share of Potanin was about 36 billion rubles. In addition, in January 2017, he sold 50% of Internet holding Rambler & Co to the billionaire Alexander Mamut. The deal is estimated at $295 million, but Potanin received only a small part: the transaction will take several years.