Hostess reveals secrets of Moscow's rich list

MOSCOW - Male, Russian, 40-years-old, self-made, on his second marriage, has two children, maintains at least one mistress and spends £4.3 million ($12.3 million) every year on everyday "running costs", including a "modest" £16,000 on food and wine.

That, according to Multimillionaires, a new book by a Russian society hostess who knows many of them personally, is the profile of your average Russian oligarch.

The author, Lena Lenina, says that any oligarch worth his caviar owns at least seven cars, employs a staff of 16, owns a yacht at least 50m in length, a private jet that costs at least £19 million, and maintains a deep slush fund for bribing government officials.

One apparently confided to her that he had to bribe a circle of corrupt politicians with "more than 1000 cars and several hundred flats".

Lenina, a former model and TV presenter based in France, says she is not talking about men such as Chelsea football club's owner, Roman Abramovich, who is worth an estimated £10 billion and apparently has a personal staff of some 700, but about the hundreds of oligarchs who are not household names.

She illuminates a corner of Russian society whose extravagance often raises eyebrows among those who get by on the average Russian salary of £160 a month.

An oligarch spends about £535 every day merely on keeping his favourite mistress in the style to which she is accustomed, according to Lenina.

She will be given a sports car and a £200,000 apartment in central Moscow.

She argues that many of Russia's wealthy businessmen have lost their nouveau-riche tastes and become far more sophisticated.

While what she calls "provincials" may still plump for a Ferrari of Lamborghini, Russia's urban rich prefer the anonymity of chauffeur-driven Mercedes, BMWs and Audis and spend an average of £425,000 a year on buying such vehicles.

An oligarch's home, she says, is a display of raw wealth: his primary residence is a Moscow penthouse complete with a pool and winter garden and a price tag of up to £5 million. Many Russian entrepreneurs also own "suburban" homes as well as a clutch of ski chalets, apartments and villas overseas.

- INDEPENDENT