Baturina Tops Finans List of Influential Businesswomen

Inteko CEO Yelena Baturina is the most influential businesswoman in the country, according to a ranking released by Finans magazine on Monday, topping a list that features many women known to have powerful husbands.

More than half of the women in this year's top 10, the magazine's second annual ranking, are newcomers from energy giants and large holdings, replacing several representatives of food producers and retailers that were prominent in last year's list.

Baturina, married to Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, topped the list for the second year running, followed closely by newcomer Natalya Kasperskaya, wife of computer guru Yevgeny Kaspersky, and Olga Pleshakova, the Transaero chief who moved up from 16th place last year.

Women hold CEO posts in less than 10 percent of all Russian companies, but they are dominant in top accounting and human resources positions, holding 93 percent and 70 percent of such jobs, respectively, according to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The ranking was compiled taking into account three factors: the size of the business, the woman's rank in the company and the position of the company and its market.

Many have connected the success of Baturina, whose net worth Finans has estimated at $2.2 billion, with her relationship to Luzhkov.

Baturina has denied that she is given preferential treatment by City Hall, and sued opposition politician Boris Nemtsov over a report stating that Inteko has benefited from the mayor's decisions. The Moscow Arbitration Court ruled last month that Nemtsov must pay Baturina 40,000 rubles ($1,300) in compensation and retract one of the claims made about her.

Kasperskaya, CEO of Kaspersky Lab, made her first appearance on the list in second place. With a net worth estimated at $450 million, she was ranked the 177th wealthiest person in the country, while Kaspersky, her husband, was 129th, according to Finans' billionaire list, released last month.

Transaero, headed by Olga Pleshakova, overtook S7 as Russia's second-largest airline in 2009, and Pleshakova took over the third-place spot from Natalya Filyova, CEO of S7 Group, who fell to 11th place on the list.

Two former top managers in Oleg Deripaska's Basic Element took their place in the top 10 after having been ousted in a staff reshuffle in the holding company.

Gulzhan Moldazhanova, who was relieved as BasEl CEO in July, slipped two places to ninth place after taking the head position at ESN Group, controlled by businessman Grigory Beryozkin.

Olga Zinovyeva, former first deputy CEO at BasEl, made her first appearance in the rankings after taking a new position at Vladimir Potanin's Interros, which for two years had been involved in a high-profile feud with BasEl over a stake in Norilsk Nickel.

Nowhere to be found on this year's list, however, are food industry titans Lyudmila Pinkevich, co-owner of agriculture holding Nastyusha, or Galina Ilyashenko, CEO of retailer Sedmoi Kontinent. Last year, the two occupied fifth and eighth place, respectively.