| Alexander Mashkevich | |
| Birth Date: | 23 February 1954[1] |
| Birth Place: | Frunze, Kyrgyz SSR, Soviet Union |
| Occupation: | Major shareholder in Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation |
| Nationality: | Israeli Kazakhstan |
Alexander Antonovich Mashkevich (Hebrew: אלכסנדר משקביץ; also transliterated Alexandr Mashkevic; Russian: Александр Антонович Машкевич; born 23 February 1954) is an Israeli-Kazakh businessman and investor who has major holdings and close political relationships in Kazakhstan. He holds both Kazakh and Israeli citizenship.[2]
He enriched himself in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, as he, Patokh Chodiev, and Alijan Ibragimov, obtained mineral and gas operations when they were privatized in Kazakhstan.[3] They founded the company Eurasian Natural Resources Corp.[4]
Mashkevich was born in Frunze, Kyrgyz SSR, Soviet Union, in 1954. His father Anton, a doctor born in Lithuania, and his mother, Rakhel Yoffe, a lawyer born in Vitebsk, were evacuated to Kyrgyzstan in 1941.[1] His family background is Lithuanian Jewish. He is a graduate of Kyrgyz State University where he studied philology. Mashkevich started out on an academic career, but became a businessman during perestroika.
Mashkevich served as president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) until 2011. The EAJC is one of the five regional branches of World Jewish Congress (WJC). He is also a major donor to the Israel lobby group European Friends of Israel.[5]
In 2002, in apparent consultation with Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Mashkevich asked his Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev — a personal friend — to intervene with Iran concerning Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbullah.[6]
Mashkevich, Patokh Chodiev, and Alijan Ibragimov form "the Trio", a group of Kazakh businessmen who became billionaires.[2] The Trio gained control of the recently privatized chromium, alumina, and gas operations in Kazakhstan (among the largest in the world).[7] [8]
Mashkevich is a major shareholder in Eurasian National Resources Corporation (ENRC), now one of the world's leading natural resources groups.[9] ENRC, based in London, operates a number of metals assets in Kazakhstan and Africa, having acquired numerous mining operations in Eastern Europe and Africa. In 2009, ENRC generated a $1,462 million profit on sales of $3.8 billion. ENRC was floated on the London Stock Exchange in December 2007, with a market capitalisation on Admission of approximately £6.8 billion. In 2013, ENRC was privatized to form the Eurasian Resources Group.
Mashkevich is one of the owners of London-based Alferon Management, which has acquired mining operations in Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Kosovo, Russia, and other countries.[10]
In 2019 he was on the Forbes list of billionaires, with a worth of $2.4 billion.[11]
On April 6, 2011, Mashkevitch announced his intention to found a Jewish version of Al-Jazeera.[12] [13]