Billionaire Potanin is waiting for the captain of the NHL club Ovechkin in Norilsk — "I promised"

Vladimir Potanin, President of Norilsk Nickel and head of the Night Hockey League Board of Trustees, is confident that Alexander Ovechkin, captain of the Washington Capitals NHL club, will come to Norilsk for a charity match organized by Norilsk Nickel. This was stated by Potanin on the air of the podcast "Out of format".

"Alexander is a very grateful and noble person. A long time ago, back in the 1990s, I helped his mom a little with her basketball dream. He remembers it to this day. I'll give you an example: there was an idea of filming in the movie "A Minute of Silence" — a series about businessmen, Yevgeny Tsyganov played the main role in it, and according to the script his character should train, play hockey, and someone should coach him. Sasha Ovechkin was just here at that moment, he was asked to play a cameo, he came and didn't take a penny of money, nothing. Just out of friendly gratitude, I took and filmed. The same goes for the match in Norilsk. He promised, and I am sure that he will come and play in front of the Arctic spectators as part of a charity match," Potanin said, quoted by TASS.

As reported, as of 2025, according to Bloomberg, Vladimir Potanin is the richest businessman in Russia, his fortune amounted to $ 29.5 billion.