Life

Abramovich tops Forbes Russia rich list

(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-04-20 07:09

In Russia, the rich just keep getting richer.

Forbes magazine's annual survey of the wealthiest 100 Russian citizens published yesterday counted 60 dollar billionaires - 16 more than a year ago - and was topped for the third year running by Roman Abramovich and his $19.2 billion fortune.

The Chelsea soccer club owner's wealth, built on oil and now anchored in steel, grew a modest 5 percent over the last year, largely because of generous funding of the remote Chukotka region he governs and commitments to state-backed projects.

Abramovich's No 1 spot was untroubled by his divorce earlier this year, which under Russian law could have cost him half his fortune and left both him and his ex-wife Irina in equal 11th place in the rankings.

Behind the 40-year-old soccer patron was a chasing pack of oil and metals magnates led by aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska with $16.8 billion, mainly the beneficiaries of Russia's swift privatization of its huge natural resources in the 1990s.

In 55th place, with $1.1 billion, was Boris Berezovsky, a Kremlin power-broker under President Boris Yeltsin who fell foul of his successor, Vladimir Putin, and now lives in political asylum in London.

Berezovsky said he had sold all his former Russian assets and now kept his money in bank accounts and liquid assets, Forbes said.

But with the cost of home security - including a lift needing a secret code and a front door lock requiring a scan of his fingerprint - Berezovsky's money might not last long enough for him to return to Russia, the magazine quipped.

Sharing joint 55th place with Berezovsky was this year's highest new entry, 58-year-old Mikhail Rakhimkulov, the sole owner of Hungary's Altalanos ErtekForgalmi Bank and a former executive at Russian gas monopoly Gazprom.

Names from outside the natural resources sectors still made up only a smattering of entries on the list, showing that Russia has a mountain to climb if it wants to achieve Putin's dream of diversifying the economy away from oil and metals.

As in previous years only one woman made the top 100: Yelena Baturina, the wife of Moscow's mayor. Her wealth, based on the Inteko construction company, is now $3.1 billion, Forbes said.

Agencies

(China Daily 04/20/2007 page8)