Why are some people living in Moscow, Russia are rich people? I thought Russia is a poor country in general?

Question

Of course, not eveyone in Moscow is rich, but there are some extremely rich people that often being mentioned in the new media.

Their richness is in fact, close to or surpass that of the other Western nations'.

What are their businesses that make them rich, and how did they become rich?

I wish to know as much information as possible.

thank you.

Answer 1

Moscow has always been a different story, a kind of state in another state. Here is an example: the people form the smaller cities or vilages near Moscow went there to sell thier goods for a price 8-10 times higher than they could sell it in their own town. And they could live with these earnings for a month (not in Mosocow, but from where they came).
In 2006, Mercer Management Consulting named Moscow the world's most expensive city, ahead of perennial winner Tokyo, due to the stable Russian ruble as well as increasing housing prices within the city. Some prices are considerably higher for the foreign visitor than for locals. For locals, small apartments bought or given by the state in the Soviet era, coupled with extremely low utility costs and easily avoidable income tax[46] serve to lower the cost of living greatly.
A significant portion of Russia's profits and development is concentrated in Moscow as many multi-national corporations have branches and offices in the city. The plush offices and the lifestyles of the typical corporate employee in Moscow are often indistinguishable from any other Western European city, although the average salary for the Muscovite is lower. Since the Russian financial crisis in late 1998, various business sectors in Moscow have shown exponential rates of growth. Many new business centers and office buildings have been built in recent years, but Moscow still experiences shortages in office space. As a result, many former industrial and research facilities are being reconstructed to become suitable for office use.

However, while the overall stability has improved in the recent years, crime and corruption continue to remain a problem hindering business development. The Mafia also runs extortion rackets in most parts of the city, though there are no reliable data to understand how large their influence is.

The Cherkizovskiy marketplace, controlled by the Azeri diaspora is the largest marketplace in Europe with daily turnover of about thirty million dollars and about ten thousand sellers from different countries (including the China, Turkey, Azerbaijan and India). It is administratively divided into twelve parts and covers a wide sector of the city.

Moscow is one of the top cities in the world for billionaires; in 2006, Forbes ranked Moscow second in highest number of billionaires, surpassed only by New York City. In 2004, Russia's thirty-six billionaires (of whom only three did not live in Moscow) held the equivalent of twenty-four precent of Russia's gross domestic product.The nouveau-riche, also called the "New Russians", often pejoratively, have a reputation for flaunting their wealth; the avenues for doing so, and subtly, have also increased in recent times - a sense of fashion and self-consciousness has instilled itself through the many haute couture and haute-cuisine spots in Moscow.

Answer 2

First of all there in Russia is very big difference betwen Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and the rest Russia and between rich people and poor ones. Secondly there is very big market (about 170 million citizens) and almost everything arrives to whole Russia through those 2 cities as well as export of raw materials. Thirdly the most of business was captured by mobsters or by ex government relaited people almost for free. The fifth place is that this country is developing very quickly and it's easy to become rich if you on the right wave. Also there in Russia are very many swindlers, scammers and etc. So everyone should be very carefull when doing business with Russians

Answer 3

Ive always heard that Moscow is the number 1 most exspensive place to live. Russia on the other hand is a country and is HUGE. Its like NYC. There its a large city and is very rich "downtown" along with LA, London etc, but outside the biggest and wealthy cities you get ghettos, crime etc. So even though millions might be able to afford living in Moscow you can travel a few miles outside the city and it becomes crap and the next wealthy city nearby may be 100's of miles before its nice again so it looks like Russia is poor.

Answer 4

Most of the rich people in moscow now covered a high position in national business industries before the revolution. When the governemt lost control of the industries they became rich keeping their place as owners.

Answer 5

Moscow has lots of oligarchs. People who saw the opportunity after the dissolution of the USSR to make lots of money quickly in private industry, especially oil and property. As much as I love Russia, these super-rich guys made their money ruthlessly and trampled on a lot of people to do it. Russia's not exactly poor. It has abundant natural resources but the division of wealth is extremely unequal.

Answer 6

What are their business that made them so rich?
Very good question. And very simple answer. In Soviet Union all natural resources belonged to the government. After the fall of Soviet Union, Yeltsin administration made a large scale privatization program, which was supposed to give almost all the industrial objects to Russian people. In some cases that program lead to certain good results, but in very many cases it ended up with fraudlent tricks which led some people to eventual owneship of those 'privatized' objects of property. The people who are extremly rich in Russia made their business by such tricks as, for example, 1)specially making the target company going bankrapt, devaluating its' assets, and then purchasing it for a small money 2) asking the persons in charge to transfer the title for the company to a safe place for a while, to a company controlled by the future rich guy, and then refusing to return them back , claiming himself a new owner (Severstal, Mr. Mordashov) 3 ) Using governmental position to make accept a loan with the governmental warranty to give back a certain company if the laon is not return on time, the company who gives the loan and the governmental officer making decision are the same persons (Norilskiy Nickel, Mr. Potanin) etc... you want me to be killed if I continue? ha ha ha ...
Well, all in all, the billionairs made their money not by creating something new, but by re-allocating very unjustly what belong to Russian people. But, on the other hand, I know many rich people, not so rich as oligarch, who made money honestly, by trade, and other good things..

Answer 7

Russia is not a poor country and it has a lot of land to mine and thats how people get rich

Answer 8

I think Russia is not a poor country, former Soviet Union, was leading by Russia, if it's a poor country, how does it compete with US in the cold war?

Answer 9

well, russia isn't a poor country in general, but most people living in russia aren't that rich. the thing is, that people that have bid buisness with natural resorses are rich.. and the people in goverment... how? well... if yu have money infront of yu, y wont yu take it??

`lidiya.k

Answer 10

Russia is not a poor country.The russian have a lot of diamants in siberia.....probably the busines men`s from russia invested in diamants or petrol...maybe thi is the answer