January 20, 2003 

A BILLIONAIRE IN RUSSIA IS MORE THAN AN OLIGARCH

NINE RUSSIAN BILLIONAIRES ARE ON THE LIST OF EUROPE'S 188 RICHEST PEOPLE FOR 2002. YOUTH AND VIGOR ARE THEIR DISTINGUISHING TRAITS. THE 
RUSSIAN TEAM OF BILLIONAIRES IS THE YOUNGEST, AND THEIR FORTUNES ARE 
GROWING FASTER THAN ANY OTHERS ON THE CONTINENT.

However, most remarkable among the Russian billionaires are a pensioner and a public servant, whose fortunes originate from Gazprom. The magazine values Viktor Chernomyrdin's (former Prime Minister) fortune at ?1.35 billion (140th place); and Rem Vyakhiev's fortune is valued at ?1.8 billion  (105th place). Vyakhirev and Chernomyrdin own stakes in Gazprom, the value of which has been growing.

Viktor Chernomyrdin is not only Russia's ambassador to Ukraine; he is also the president's special envoy for the development of  Russian-Ukrainian commercial and economic contacts, which means he is  virtually a Kremlin official. Discussion related to Chernomyrdin's 
wealth once ended in a scandal previously. In 1997, citing Le Monde,  Izvestia reported that the private fortune of the Russian prime  minister was the equivalent of $5 billion. Chernomyrdin angrily denied  all such statements. In general, responding to all attempts of  assessing his fortune, he has challenged people to find even one  register of Gazprom's shares containing information about shares he  owns. Despite the fact that over the past decade Chernomyrdin hasn't  been involved in commercial activities, the Western media still  continues counting his billions.

That is the case with most Russian "public servants" who have never been associated manufacturing activities that earn profits, yet have amased fortunes withut a visible origin

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is among the richest among Russians. In the opinion of EuroBusiness analysts, his fortune ranks eighth in  Europe. Moreover, among  the 30 richest people in the world. The head of YUKOS is last on that list.

Almost all of the Russian billionaires expanded their fortunes last year, with the exception of Vladimir  Potanin and Vladimir Bogdanov - in 2002 their capital was assessed at 
less than in 2001. The year of 2002 proved to be incredibly successful  for Roman Abramovich - judging by the magazine's information, he  managed to double his fortune. Such dynamics of growth is  unprecedented for similar astronomic amounts.Mr Abramovitch is one of the major stockholders of RusAl which controls 70% of the Russian aluminium industry with $12 billion in export sales.

Almost all billionaire fortunes of Russia were gained due to closeness of their owners to the government. Besides the steady contacts with the authorities, the Russian billionaires have another considerable distinction from their European colleagues. Among the  European billionaires it is hard to find any under 60, and many of  them are over 70 and they made their fortunes during their long lives.

With the exception of Vyakhirev and Chernomyrdin, the Russian  billionaires are very young. The young and daring Russian capitalists  are putting pressure on the European magnates.
There are two billionaires in Ukraine - Rinat Akhmetov with 1.7  billion and Viktor Pinchuk with 1.3 billion.

The Portuguese economy is often used as a criterion for measuring  the growth of the Russian economy.  Rusia has outpaced Portugal  according to the number of billionaires - nine-fold.

An estimated 25,000 residents ( of value in excess if $1 million) on the Spanish Costa Del Sol have been bought by Russian. The mean average per capita bank balance in the Caribbean is now $35,000 as a result of some billion dollar individual Russian account, while the mode average remain $35.

Russians continue to be large Venture Capital investors and business investors. 

CAN YOU REALLY RELY UPON PALMS & COMPANY?
You are One of the  Who can. (World Population Counter)

Can Palms deliver?

What is their track-record ?

How long have they been around?

Who is he anyhow? .

What does the Government think                     of his work

O.K. get a hold of Palms       No, we don't need Palms. Lets do it ourselves with in-house staff but lets get his entire database on CD and use it

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