Moscow becomes world's billionaire capital - Forbes - Political Fever

New Governor Of Alaska · #1 (**permalink**) 03-06-2008, 06:53 PM

Hey, Americans, got money? Let's do some business....

06/ 03/ 2008

NEW YORK, March 6 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow now has 74 billionaires with average wealth of $5.9 bln, placing it above New York, Forbes Magazine said in its annual rich list published on Thursday.
According to the list, New York has 71 billionaires, followed by London with 36, Istanbul with 34, and Hong Kong with 30.
Russia is second only to the United States in the number of its super-rich. An additional 35 Russians have crossed the $1 bln mark in the past year, helped along by the continued rise of the ruble against the dollar.

"Sixteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia, with 87 billionaires, is the new No. 2 country behind the U.S., easily overtaking Germany, with 59 billionaires, which held the honour for six years," said Forbes associate editor Luisa Kroll.

The Unites States accounts for 469 (42%) of the world's billionaires.
Topping the list of Russia's billionaires is Oleg Deripaska with $28 bln, placing him ninth in the world, ahead of the more famous Roman Abramovich with $23.5 bln, in 15th place.

Deripaska's holding company Basic Element owns huge assets in insurance, auto manufacture, and aluminum, while Abramovich, since selling his oil company Sibneft to Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom in 2005, has bought up steel and mining assets. He also owns Chelsea Football Club.

Russia's richest woman remains Elena Baturina, the 45-year-old second wife of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, 71. Forbes estimates that she has added $1.1 bln to her personal wealth in the past year, bringing it up to $4.2 bln and putting her in 253rd place globally.

Baturina founded Inteko in 1991, which became Moscow's largest construction firm in the years after her husband became mayor. In late 2006 she sued the Russian edition of Forbes over a cover story.

READ MORE - RIA Novosti - Russia - Moscow becomes world's billionaire capital - Forbes

Elena Baturina
Age: 43
Fortune: NA
Source: Construction

Net Worth: 2.3

Country Of Citizenship: Russia

Residence: Moscow, Russia, Europe & Russia
Industry: Engineering/Construction
Marital Status: married, 2 children
Elena Baturina, The World's Richest People - Forbes.com

Photos of Moscow

Grouch · #2 (**permalink**) 03-06-2008, 07:26 PM

Capitalism for the win!

GeneCosta · #3 (**permalink**) 03-06-2008, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grouch

Capitalism for the win!

I concur! 20+ million successfully dead. Prison conditions worse than the gulags. Fleeting state and private pension plans. Counts of theft, rape, and murder that would make Satan shed tears. Dangerous goods passed off as safe by private enterprise. A massive sex trafficking route that cuts right through Russia and South Korea. Capitalism is wonderful - if you're rich.

Russia: In City Of Riches, 'Average' Family Focuses On The Essentials - RADIO FREE EUROPE / RADIO LIBERTY

SamInTheSouth · #4 (**permalink**) 03-06-2008, 08:02 PM

It's worthy to note that countries that have adopted the Flat Tax, instead of the progressive income tax that most of Western Europe and America has, have been growing far more quickly than those that don't. Russia, Hong Kong, Czech Republic, etc. have all been doing phenomenal. Their economies are booming compared to ours.

Phædrus · #5 (**permalink**) 03-06-2008, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamInTheSouth

It's worthy to note that countries that have adopted the Flat Tax, instead of the progressive income tax that most of Western Europe and America has, have been growing far more quickly than those that don't. Russia, Hong Kong, Czech Republic, etc. have all been doing phenomenal. Their economies are booming compared to ours.

But their standard of living is much lower. Hmmm...

New Governor Of Alaska · #6 (**permalink**) 03-06-2008, 08:11 PM

Elena Baturina

Born March 8, 1963 in Moscow, Russia. She is the only Russian woman who is a billionaire. Started her company Inteko in 1991 which initially produced furniture and crockery, but has since expanded into construction. Her business is said to control 20% of Moscow's construction market.
She is married to Moscow Mayor, Yury Luzhkov, they have two daughters Luzhkov, Alyona (born 1992) and Olga (born March 1994). Education: degree from Moscow Institute of Management.

Fortune
$1.3 billion as of 2005.

Elena Baturina - Fortune - Billionaire list

GeneCosta · #7 (**permalink**) 03-06-2008, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamInTheSouth

It's worthy to note that countries that have adopted the Flat Tax, instead of the progressive income tax that most of Western Europe and America has, have been growing far more quickly than those that don't. Russia, Hong Kong, Czech Republic, etc. have all been doing phenomenal. Their economies are booming compared to ours.

What? Hong Kong utilizes a progressive salary tax. The city may have low barriers to trade and low taxation (comparatively), but the government technically leases all land and still employs protective safety nets.

Developing countries have higher growth rates due to there being massive room to expand. Venezuela, for example, had 9.3% growth in 2005.

SamInTheSouth · #8 (**permalink**) 03-06-2008, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phædrus

But their standard of living is much lower. Hmmm...

Well sure it is, now. It takes years to recover from the economic depression they were under all those decades, but they are slowly coming back and the Flat Tax is spreading like wild fire across Eastern Europe.

Quote:

Global competitiveness. In a remarkable development, former communist nations are leading a global tax reform revolution. Estonia was the first to adopt a flat tax, implementing a 26 per cent rate in 1994, just a few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The other two Baltic republics of the former Soviet Union enacted flat taxes in the mid-1990s, with Latvia choosing a 25 per cent rate and Lithuania picking 33 per cent. Along with other free-market reforms, the flat tax significantly improved economic growth, and the ‘Baltic Tigers’ became role models for the region. Learning from its neighbors, Russia stunned the world by adopting a 13 per cent flat tax, which went into effect in 2001.

The Russian flat tax quickly yielded positive results: the economy prospered and revenues poured into government coffers since tax evasion and avoidance became much less profitable. The flat tax then spread to Serbia, which in 2003 chose a 14 per cent rate. Slovakia hopped on the bandwagon the following year with a 19 per cent flat tax, as did Ukraine, which chose a 13per cent rate. Earlier this year, Romania joined the flat tax revolution with a 16 per cent tax rate, and Georgia adopted a 12per cent rate. This year, Kyrgyzstan adopted a 10 per cent flat tax, giving it the honor, at least temporarily, of having the lowest rate in the world.

The flat tax revolution has been so successful that Estonia is lowering its rate to keep pace with other nations: it is now down to 24 per cent and will drop to 20 per cent by 2007.Lithuania is in the process of lowering its 33 per cent flat tax to a more reasonable 24 per cent, and the Latvian government wants to reduce its tax rate from 25 per cent to 15 per cent.

The Heritage Foundation

SamInTheSouth · #9 (**permalink**) 03-06-2008, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeneCosta

What? Hong Kong utilizes a progressive salary tax. The city may have low barriers to trade and low taxation (comparatively), but the government technically leases all land and still employs protective safety nets.

Developing countries have higher growth rates due to there being massive room to expand. Venezuela, for example, had 9.3% growth in 2005.

Hong Kong's flat tax is optional. They can choose the progressive system if they want. They have had the Flat Tax option since 1947.

mlurp · #10 (**permalink**) 03-06-2008, 09:43 PM

See crime does pay... The govt. or what their is of it with the one man rule of Putin, is is tight with the crime bosses. If you care to read some truths.

The Aum Supreme Truth Terrorist Organization - The Crime library

Viruslist.com - Russian connection in Turkish cybercrime investigation

China's Strategic Modernization: The Russian Connection

Syria's Russian Connection

The Russian connection. (illegal sale of beryllium and

Even The Communists Think Putin Is Too Powerful
H/T to Bali Shag Girl for sending in the following:

Even The Communists Think Putin Is Too Powerful Ronin
Russian communists say Putin more powerful than Tsar
By Dmitry Zhdannikov
Yahoo News
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The leader of Russia’s Communist Party accused President Vladimir Putin on Saturday of piling up vast powers and said the Kremlin’s main party represented billionaires rather than ordinary people.

“He (President Vladimir Putin) has more power today than the Pharaoh of Egypt, the Tsar, and the Soviet Union’s General Secretary combined,” veteran Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov told a party congress on the outskirts of Moscow.

“He has four times more power than the quite powerful president of the United States,” said Zyuganov, whose party is the country’s number two political force with 162,000 members.

Zyuganov said his party, the successor to the all-powerful Soviet Communists, hoped to win at least a fifth of seats in elections this December for the State Duma (lower house of parliament). It currently has just over 10 percent of deputies.

The Duma is dominated by United Russia, a party patronized by Putin, which enjoys a two-thirds majority.

Zyuganov said he was the only real opponent of the Kremlin and added he was gaining new supporters as voters were getting bored with unfulfilled promises from United Russia, which he said represented the rich, with over 30 billionaires among its Duma members.

“They (United Russia) have billionaires. We have millions (of supporters) behind us,” he added.

The December elections will be closely watched as a dress rehearsal for a presidential vote next March.

The most recent poll by the independent Yuri Levada Centre showed this week that the Communists could gain 18 percent of seats in December, while United Russia would secure 55 percent.

Another pro-Kremlin party, Fair Russia, would get seven percent and the nationalist LDPR, which often votes with the government, would gain 11 percent.

The Communists used to dominate the Duma in the 1990s during the turbulent years of Boris Yeltsin’s presidency.

But as Russia’s oil-fuelled economy booms, the Communists face a tough political challenge to win back popularity.

The Communists have complained they are not getting a fair share of airtime on television, which is dominated by pro-Kremlin parties. However Putin met Zyuganov this week to discuss the elections and Zyuganov’s Saturday speech was aired live on the state television channel Vesti-24.

MOOD LIFTED BY WINS

Zyuganov said the mood in the Communists’ camp had been lifted by wins this year in regional elections, which he said had shown that the dominance of United Russia can be broken.

“In (the east Siberian region of) Krasnoyarsk, where the results usually coincide with the whole country, we had 20-22 percent. And in some regions we had over 30 percent. Let’s be guided by these figures…,” he told delegates.

He also denounced analysts’ observations that his electorate was shrinking as it was mostly composed of elderly people.

“The most educated part of our society is voting today for the Communists. And young people are turning up every day,” he said, adding that his goal was to win the undecided votes.

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