From ostentatious to out of sight

Russia's oligarchs keep a low profile as their wealth evaporates and public anger grows.

Miriam ElderJune 15, 2009 08:20Updated May 30, 2010 11:57

A man smokes a cigar during the opening night of the Millionaire Fair in Moscow, Nov. 27, 2008. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

ST. PETERSBURG — Where have all the oligarchs gone?

In the days when Russia was flush with petrodollars, their faces graced every tabloid, their presence was expected at every gala event and their mythical wealth served to boost the pride of a Kremlin keen to cast off the criminal reputation of the 1990s.

How quickly things change.

These days, Russia’s richest men are in hiding, working hard to restructure billions of dollars in foreign debt and avoid increasingly growing public discontent, as factory after factory shutters its doors, putting millions out of work.

“No one has managed to avoid being caught up in the global crisis,” President Dmitry Medvedev said recently, opening an economic forum in St. Petersburg that had become the top event on Russia’s calendar in recent years, drawing CEOs of top Russian and multinational firms, high-ranking politicians of all stripes and parties galore to celebrate the country’s seemingly unending economic boom.

Not so this year, when some 3,500 people gathered under the cold gray skies of Russia’s northern capital in the shadow of an economic crisis that has prompted projections that the country’s GDP will shrink by about 8 percent this year after a decade of steady growth.

Roman Abramovich, the soft-spoken billionaire who made his money in metals and oils, was nowhere to be seen. Last year, his $300 million, 377-foot-long yacht, one of the world’s biggest, was a main tourist draw during the annual forum, anchored in the heart of historic St. Petersburg on the banks of the Neva River.

“He had other commitments,” said John Mann, Abramovich’s spokesman, explaining the oligarch’s absence.

The number of Russian billionaires on the annual Forbes list dropped to 32 this year from 71, and those who managed to make the list still saw their collective wealth drop by $471 billion.

Many of the oligarchs — about a dozen men who made their fortunes buying up cheap industrial assets in the rounds of privatization that followed the demise of the Soviet Union — are struggling to save their empires.

What’s more, they now have to contend with a Kremlin eager to avoid any of the backlash beginning to spread across the country as unemployment and poverty strengthen their hold over Russia’s far-flung regions.

A case in point is Oleg Deripaska, the man who last year was Russia’s richest and this year is contending with the loss of several assets as he seeks to restructure over $20 billion in debt.