Most billionaires in Moscow
2004-05-13 20:13
Moscow - More billionaires are based in Moscow than in any other city in the world, said Forbes magazine's Russian edition on Thursday, listing 33 billionaires who either lived in the Russian capital or amassed their fortunes there.
Moscow edges out New York City, with 31 billionaires, magazine officials said at a news conference.
But, despite Russia's thriving economy, Forbes counts far more billionaires in the United States - 277 compared with Russia's 36.
For Russia's richest man and one other tycoon on the list, calling Moscow home has a darkly ironic ring.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, with wealth estimated at $15.2bn, and Platon Lebedev, No 22 with $1.8bn, are imprisoned in the capital on charges connected to a government probe of the Yukos oil company and related operations.
Three others on the list are believed to be living in Israel as self-avowed refugees.
Vladimir Nevzlin, Mikhail Brudno and Vladimir Dubov all are sought by Russian authorities in the Yukos case.
Second on the list is oil and aluminium magnate Roman Abramovich ($12.5bn), who gained wide attention with his recent purchase of Britain's Chelsea soccer team.
Third-ranked Viktor Vekselberg made waves this year in another Forbes connection - he bought 10 Faberge eggs that had previously belonged to the magazine's late publisher, Malcolm Forbes.
According to Forbes, Russia's first four billionaires appeared only in 1997.
Russian edition editor Paul Klebnikov said the speedy growth of the billionaire class was due to the dynamism of the Russian economy.
Half of their money comes from oil
"Here people fly and fall with staggering speed," he said.
About half of the listed billionaires' fortunes stem from oil, the mainspring of the Russian economy.
Russia has recovered strongly from the 1998 financial collapse, largely on the strength of high world oil prices and some analysts fear that an oil price plunge will seriously undermine the economy.
The Russian billionaires' total net worth is estimated by the magazine at $110bn - the equivalent of nearly one-fourth of Russia's GDP.
By comparison, the US tycoons' total was nearly six times higher at $651bn, but the equivalent of only 6% of the US GDP.
- AP