http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,1775800,00.html
Many Russians so rich they need £100 note
Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Tuesday May 16, 2006
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>
The latest sign of Russia's wealth explosion, the 5,000 rouble (£100)
banknote, is to be unveiled by the central bank today. The new note will sit
comfortably in the wallets of the country's 88,000 dollar millionaires and
33 billionaires, but is likely to be less useful for most of the population,
for whom two of the notes are roughly a month's salary.
To thwart counterfeiters, the exact appearance and colour of the note, which
pictures the eastern city of Khabarovsk, will remain secret until its July
release.
At the moment rich Muscovites must pay for their Gucci and Prada outfits
with dozens of 1,000 rouble notes, the highest denomination currently
available.
While President Vladimir Putin is far behind his target of doubling Russia's
GDP by 2010, few critics of the Kremlin would dispute that Russians are
broadly getting richer, due to record prices for the country's oil. At the
high end of society, this means that purchasers of a $10m country house can
expect a free helicopter thrown into the deal, while at the lower end there
are 88 mobile phones for every 100 Russians. The 36 richest people in the
country are worth $110bn between them.
The author Oksana Robski lifted the lid on the decadent and limitless world
of Russia's super-rich in her recent autobiographical novel, Casual,
describing a world of surgical enhancements for pet poodles.
A "millionaire's fair" held recently outside Moscow to tantalise poorer
Russians had on display a $1m pen encrusted with diamonds, and a suit made
of dollar bills.
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