The Russian oligarchs - a quarter of Russia's economy is owned by 36 men

the oligarchs created by the fall of the soviet bloc and other socialist countries meant little to me until i had the chance to learn about it up close and personal... over the past few years, i have made numerous trips to countries of the former yugoslavia and also to bulgaria, and have had the opportunity to learn just how some of these people acquired their fortunes... it's really no mystery...

in the rush to privatization, employees of state-owned enterprises were awarded stock commensurate with their position in the organization... the higher up you were, the more stock you got... no surprise, more often than not, the senior managers were also the higher ranking officials in the party... in any case, many of them took their majority stock positions, sold them off for a tidy profit, or, in other cases, simply sold off the organization's assets for cash, transferring the money to - where else? - switzerland... some stuck with the business and struggled while trying to learn to manage in a for-profit, private sector environment, and quite a few of those didn't make it...

here's a bbc reporter's look at the secret world of the super-rich oligarchs outside moscow...

Ever since I arrived in Russia I've heard tall stories of a secret city deep in the forests outside Moscow where the rich indulge their fantasies in sprawling palaces of marble and gold. It sounded like a good story. I didn't expect it to be true, let alone that I'd get an invite.

[...]

On either side of us huge mansions stood in spacious grounds. Some looked vaguely Georgian, others Victorian, one like a Bavarian castle. Vitaly, the BBC driver, turned to me, his face deadpan. "When did we cross the border?" he asked.

Svetlana's [not her real name] "cottage" was a spectacular 3,000 sq m Art Deco pile. How big is that? Big enough for an indoor swimming pool, a cinema, a bowling alley, a ballroom, and the piece de resistance, its own indoor ice rink!

"This is our newest house," Svetlana told me as we walked past a large bronze sphinx in the gardens. "My father's been building it for five years."

She wasn't sure how much it had cost, "probably 20 million," she guessed.

"So how many other houses do you have?" I asked.

"A couple in Moscow, two in the south of France, and one in Corsica," she said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

She shops in Paris and Milan, where she flies on one of her father's private jets.

[...]

A mile down the road, firmly back in Russia, I went to see Mrs Rima. The 75-year-old showed me around the one-room shack she built with her own hands.

She survives on a pension of £60 a month.

I asked her what she thinks of the rich people who live behind the high green walls.

"They're all thieves," she said. "All that money is stolen from the people."

It's a view millions of Russians would agree with. Fifteen years ago everything in Russia was owned by the state. Today a quarter of Russia's economy is owned by 36 men.

i've seen similar enclaves, although perhaps not quite as over-the-top, in both skopje and sofia...

tell me all that happened on the up-and-up...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet