The possibilities seemed limitless as he networked with the British political elite, entertaining George Osborne, shadow chancellor of the exchequer, and Peter Mandelson, then European Union trade commissioner, on his yacht, the 72-metre Queen K. With plans to list Rusal, his aluminium company, on the London Stock Exchange as part of his bid for Norilsk Nickel, the contacts would help.
But within weeks, Mr Deripaska's fortunes unravelled. An exodus of foreign investors from Russia that began amid the war with Georgia accelerated as the global credit crisis deepened. Russian shares tumbled by more than 70 per cent, exposing vast foreign borrowings – pledged against Russian blue-chip stocks – that had funded the foreign and domestic acquisition sprees of men such as Mr Deripaska, who had dominated global rich lists as commodity prices soared.
Mr Deripaska has always been more ambitious than most. He was born in 1968 in the southern region of Krasnodar but grew up in a Cossack village in the south of Russia, after his mother left him there to live with his grandparents at an early age (his father had died when he was very young). He had to learn quickly to be tough. When his grandparents died, the state seized their home in a programme to break up Cossack settlements. He moved among relatives for seven years until his mother returned and they moved to a nearby town. His time in the village left a lasting imprint. “We are Cossacks of the Russian Federation. We are always prepared for war,” he told the Financial Times last year. “This is a question of always being prepared to deal with problems and with any situation.”