As the coronavirus pandemic gained pace in Russia this spring, a billionaire steel magnate, Aleksei A. Mordashov, called four regional governors and urged them to lock down the cities where he operates. For Andrei A. Guryev, the scion of a fertilizer empire, limiting travel into two Arctic cities of 80,000 people where he runs a phosphate mine was even easier. His company owns the airport and the local ski resort that attracts outsiders. “We shut them down,” Mr. Guryev said. “The decision was ours alone.” The influence of the Russian business tycoons known as oligarchs waned early this century as President Vladimir V. Putin consolidated power, transforming them from warring clans to fantastically rich families dependent on the Kremlin’s benevolence. Now, the coronavirus crisis presents them with another turning point: the greatest economic threat in decades, coupled with an enormous […]