Roman Abramovich has lost a title that he would rather have kept and kept one that he wanted to lose after a day that illuminated the rules of life in President Putin’s Russia.

The Chelsea owner was overtaken as Russia’s richest man by an aluminium magnate whose estimated fortune of $21.2 billion (£10.8 billion) is said to make him $200 million richer than Mr Abramovich, whose football club is second in the English Barclaycard remier-ship. In another reversal, Mr Putin compelled Mr Abramovich to remain in office as governor of a far-flung region in the Arctic Circle two months after he tried to resign.

Mr Putin plainly means to keep a grip on the oligarchs as next year’s presidential elections approach. Despite Mr Abramovich’s billions, he has to display loyalty to Mr Putin. Mr Putin’s power-play also illustrates the uneasy relationship between the Kremlin and the business elite whose wealth is resented by ordinary Russians, who believe that much of it was stolen in privatisation deals in the 1990s. The Kremlin said that Mr Putin valued Mr Abramovich’s work as Governor in impoverished Chukotka.

Mr Abramovich’s huge investments to improve living standards in Chukotka are often cited as an example to others in showing loyalty to the Kremlin.

The jailing of Mikhail Khod-orkovsky, who was the richest Russian when he was arrested in 2003, remains a warning to the billionaire class not to challenge Mr Putin’s authority. He is eligible for parole in October but prosecutors laid charges of money laundering against him last week in what was seen as a Kremlin attempt to keep him in prison beyond the elections.

Soaring commodity prices helped to propel Oleg Deripaska ahead of Mr Abramovich, boosting his fortune by almost 60 per cent, from $12.7 billion last year. Mr Abramovich’s wealth rose by $2.3 billion, from $18.7 billion. It is the first time that Mr Abramovich has not been the top of the wealth league since the Russian business magazine Finans began its annual ranking in 2004.

At 39, Mr Deripaska is nearly two years younger than his rival. He has been careful to play by Mr Putin’s rules and has long had close relations with the Kremlin.

His wife, Polina, is the daughter of Valentin Yumashev, the chief of staff of Boris Yeltsin. Mr Yumashev then married Mr Yeltsin’s daughter, Tatiana, making Mr Deripaska related by marriage to the former President. Like Mr Abramovich, Mr Deripaska has a big house in Bel-gravia. He learnt English by flying his private jet to London each week for a year for lessons.

His Basic Element business empire owns 100 per cent of Rusal, the world’s second-larg-est aluminium company, after buying out Mr Abramovich’s 25 per cent stake in 2003 for an estimated $2 billion. Mr Deripaska has continued to invest heavily in the Russian economy. By contrast, Mr Abramovich has been converting his holdings into cash. As well as selling his stake in Rusal, Mr Abramovich sold the Sibneft oil company to the state-owned Gazprom for $13 billion in 2005.

But the Chelsea owner has supported Kremlin-backed projects, including a business school and a new national football stadium. Mr Abramovich asked to leave the governorship of Chukotka, saying he had achieved all his goals since being elected in 2000. He first sought to go in 2005, but Mr Putin reappointed him after abolishing gubernatorial elections.

Russia has 61 billionaires, 11 more than last year, according to Finans. Mikhail Prokhorov, who was arrested last month by French police investigating an alleged prostitution ring, was named Russia’s third-richest man, with $14.2 billion.

Top of the pile

1 Oleg Deripaska 39, $21.2 billion (£10.8 billion). Owns Rusal, the second-largest aluminium company in the world, as part of a business empire stretching from insurance to aircraft

2 Roman Abramovich 40, $21.0 billion. Russia’s richest man until now. He spends his oil wealth on expensive Chelsea footballers

3 Mikhail Prokhorov 41, $14.2 billion. Known as the most eligible bachelor in Russia. He made a fortune from Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest platinum mine

4 Vladimir Potanin 46, $14.2 billion. Prokhorov’s business partner until the Courchevel scandal caused a division of assets. Devised the “loans for shares” scheme that led to cut-price sale of state assets in return for loans

5 Vladimir Lisin 50, $13.9 billion. Former miner and steelworker who owns coal companies and one of the largest Russian steel mills

Times Recommends

• Fish and chip shops ‘selling cobbler as cod’
• T in the Park festival at Kinross
• How to get Madonna’s Thighs