The net worth of Russia's 100 richest people has dropped more than three-fold in the economic crisis, pushing the 2009 fortunes of the super wealthy back to the levels of 2004, a report said today.
Russia in 2008 had well over 100 billionaires, making it second only to the United States in the super rich stakes, but the crisis has scythed that figure down to only 32, the Russian edition of Forbes magazine said.
Russia's super rich have been particularly hard hit by the financial crisis as many made their money in commodities whose prices have collapsed over the last six months and now have to pay back colossal debts.
Forbes, in its annual survey of Russia's rich, said that the net worth of Russia's 100 richest people had been whittled back to only $142 billion, compared with over $520 billion a year earlier.
It said this had set Russia's rich back to the start of the economic boom in 2004 when the net worth of the super rich was $140 billion and it had counted just 36 billionaires.
Confirming figures published by its US sister publication last month, the magazine said bachelor financier Mikhail Prokhorov, 43, is now Russia's richest man with a fortune of $9.5 billion.
