Vladimir Romanov

Vladimir Nikolayevich Romanov (Russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Рома́нов; IPA: [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr nʲɪkɐˈlaɪvʲɪtɕ rɐˈmanəf], Lithuanian: Vladimiras Romanovas; born 1947 in Tver Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR) is an ethnic Russian businessman who also holds Lithuanian citizenship following that country's independence from the Soviet Union.

He was chairman of UBIG Investments, which owned a majority of the shares in failed Lithuanian bank Ūkio Bankas. Cash flow from the bank enabled him to stake significant stakes in various sporting clubs, becoming the majority shareholder in both Scottish Premier League football club Hearts and Lithuanian Basketball League club Žalgiris, and taking control of the Lithuanian club FBK Kaunas. The group was the owner of Belarusian Premier League club FC Partizan Minsk before it was sold in March 2012.

Romanov spent his early childhood in Tver Oblast, before moving with his family to Lithuania at the age of nine. His father had served in the Red Army and fought in the Battle of Berlin, but died when Romanov was just 16. This meant that Romanov was forced to support the rest of the family, which he did by driving a taxi and selling Western popular music, including bootleg copies of records by The Beatles, Elvis Presley and The Rolling Stones.