Russia Is Back In The Billionaire Minting Business

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Feb 11th 2010 at 8:01PM

In the last few months we've been noticing Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich doing a lot of spending. There was that pricey New York dinner, the lavish New Year's Eve party, the new house in Los Angeles. He seems to be doing quite well and he's not alone, Russia is making billionaires once again. The Moscow-based magazine Finans says that Abramovich remains one of Russia's top three richest men. The magazine's data reveals that all those in the top ten had a fortune of at least $9.95 billion. Two of the richest, Mikhail Prokhorov and Roman Abramovich were worth more last year, with $14.1 billion and $13.9 billion, respectively.

Businessweek reports that Russia gained 28 new billionaires bringing the total to 77 from 49 a year ago. That's a good number but not quite up to the 101 billionaires that were filling Russia's coffers in 2008. Finans states that the combined wealth of the 10 richest Russians now sits at $139.3 billion, up 84 percent over last year but still down from the $221 billion the 10 richest were worth two years ago.

Tags: billionaires, Mikhail Prokhorov, MikhailProkhorov, roman abramovich, RomanAbramovich, Russian billionaire, Russian billionaires, RussianBillionaire, RussianBillionaires