Alexei Miller, CEO of Russian gas giant, Gazprom, is the highest paid executive in Russia according to the Russian edition of Forbes magazine. 

The magazine said that the 53 year old Miller earned $27 million last year, $2 million more than his 2013 earnings.

The second highest paid executive was Andrei Kostin who is head of the banking group VTB. He earned $21 million last year, $16 million less than his earnings the previous year. ,

In third place, was the head of Russia’s other energy giant, Rosneft. Igor Sechin, earned $17.5 million last year.

The top four and five were German Gref of Sberbank ($13.5 million), and Vladimir Yakunin of Russian Railways who earned $11 million last year.

The earnings for the top 25 executives in Russia were down 17% from the previous year, but still an impressive $242 million. Russia’s economic recession and currency crisis had a sharp impact on the business environment in 2014.

Whilst earnings will possibly be down in 2015 also, there are signs that suggest the worst of the downturn has passed.