MOSCOW, December 25 (RAPSI)- CEO of Norilsk Nickel, billionaire Vladimir Potanin has filed a divorce application with the Presnensky District Magistrate Court in Moscow, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

On Wednesday, Potanin’s team moved for the proceedings to be closed to the press, appealing to the right to privacy. The court granted the motion and closed the proceedings, despite the defendants’ objections. The application says that spousal relations between the nickel king and his wife Natalia Potanina have effectively ceased, they have no shared assets and live separately.

Potanin is the CEO and major shareholder at Norilsk Nickel with a fortune that Forbes estimated this year at $14.3 billion.

Potanin made the international headlines in October, when he bought the world's largest white truffle from a New York restaurateur for $95,000.