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VTB's Kostin Ranked Top Earner

Kostin's income, including salary, benefits and profit sharing, totaled about $30 million last year, according to Forbes. Denis Grishkin

Andrei Kostin, head of state-controlled lender VTB, was ranked the highest-paid executive in the country, according to a list published by Forbes magazine Monday.

Kostin's income, including salary, benefits and profit sharing, totaled about $30 million last year, according to a survey carried out by Forbes' Russian publication.

He was closely followed by Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller, who earned $25 million, overtaking the heads of other global oil and gas companies — James Mulva of ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil's Rex Tillerson, the publication said.

The annual income of Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin, who took office only in May, is likely to reach $25 million as well, putting him in third place in the ranking.

Sberbank chief executive German Gref was ranked fourth with a more modest take of $15 million, most of which was received in bonuses — the part that largely depends on the lender's net profit, according to the publication. Gref's contract stipulates that the size of his bonus can reach up to 0.075 percent of Sberbank's annual net profit, which hit $10.75 billion last year, Forbes said. That means Gref could have earned almost $8 million in variable pay, it said.

To calculate the size of compensation, the magazine examined the size of last year's revenues at 70 Russian companies, interviewed executive head hunters and used information from sources.

Among others who made the list are the heads of Gazprom Neft, Aeroflot and Norilsk Nickel. The magazine didn't include state corporations in the survey or companies whose owners are also senior executives, like LUKoil or Severstal.

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