From Moscow film studios to international oil trading: the career of Alexander Zhukov

Countries & Cities · Published 15 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Alexander Zhukov is a Russian-born British businessman whose career spans from selling personal computers in the late 1980s to managing vast port infrastructure and ice cream production. Despite his success, his path has been marked by high-stakes legal battles, including a 2001 arrest that was later fully cleared by courts.

Born in Moscow in 1954, Alexander Zhukov began his professional life as an assistant to a film director before transitioning into the business world during the late 1980s. He initially founded a cooperative called Byte to sell personal computers. By the early 1990s, he partnered with Leonid Lebedev and Mark Garber to establish Sintez, a firm that quickly expanded into oil trading and infrastructure. By 1997, the group's turnover reached US$1.5 billion, driven by strategic investments in oil processing and port terminals in Ukraine.

The late 1990s saw a restructuring of his business interests, with Zhukov taking control of the Ukrainian transshipment and banking assets. Following the sale of these holdings in the early 2000s, he established the Interfinance group, headquartered in Switzerland. This firm diversified into various sectors, including real estate, road construction, and the food industry. Notably, he acquired the Ice-Fili business in 2005, which was later reorganized into the Iceberry group, a major Russian ice cream producer that remains part of his portfolio today.

Zhukov's business history has not been without controversy. In 2001, he was arrested in Italy on suspicion of arms smuggling, but he was absolved of all charges in 2004 after a court determined the alleged offenses never occurred. Later, he became involved in a protracted legal dispute regarding his stake in the UK-based JKX Oil & Gas plc. In 2015, the UK Supreme Court ruled in favor of shareholders, finding that the company had acted with an improper purpose by restricting their voting rights. Zhukov eventually divested his interest in JKX in 2016.

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