Russian state-owned Sberbank’s supervisory board postponed a decision on a share issue that would be worth $8.7 billion at current prices, a senior finance ministry official told Reuters.
Popularity: 7% [?]
November 29, 2006A Russian lawmaker and billionaire industrialist was being treated in a hospital Monday for severe burns suffered when a sports car he was driving slammed into a tree and caught fire in southeastern France over the weekend, police said.
Popularity: 12% [?]
November 28, 2006Russian TV star Tina Kandelaki denies she was in the car with Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov when he crashed his Ferrari on the Riviera Saturday, Reuters news agency reported Tuesday.
Popularity: 22% [?]
RGI International Ltd., a Moscow property developer part-owned by a Morgan Stanley fund, is seeking to raise as much as $182 million in an initial share sale to tap rising demand for real estate in Russia’s capital, according to Bloomberg.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Poisoned former spy Alexander Litvinenko’s deathbed message may have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin, but pro-Kremlin lawmakers and state-controlled television networks pointed the finger at a prominent Putin enemy in Britain — tycoon Boris Berezovsky, the Associated Press reports.
Popularity: 6% [?]
November 27, 2006The media holding of Russia’s state-controlled gas monopoly, Gazprom, plans to buy the country’s most widely read newspaper, “Komsomolskaya Pravda.”
Popularity: 5% [?]
November 22, 2006Russia’s foreign intelligence service denied Monday any involvement in the alleged poisoning of a former agent in London.
Popularity: 7% [?]
November 21, 2006A controversial Russian billionaire Arkady Gaydamak, who since immigrating has won popularity in Israel with major philanthropic projects, said in an interview published Sunday that he could run against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the next elections.
Popularity: 6% [?]
November 20, 2006A $1.3 million diamond-encrusted cellphone, a $500,000 racehorse and a $70,000 mini airplane are among the items on display at the Millionaire Fair held in Moscow this week — a screaming showcase of the country’s oil-driven wealth and the free-spending ways of its nouveau riche, The Associated Press reports.
Popularity: 3% [?]
November 3, 2006Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is building an 80 million pounds ($151 million)hospital in Moscow that is likely to become the first port of call for Russia’s rich and famous, The Sunday Times weekly reports.
The Moscow Medical Centre — which is financed by Millhouse LLC, Abramovich’s holding company — will be the country’s most luxurious and technologically advanced hospital.
Located in an 8.7-acre park on the southern edge of the capital a couple of miles from Rublyovka, Moscow’s version of Beverly Hills, the clinic will employ a medical staff of 700 to care for 400 people, including 80 in-house patients.
VIP patients will stay in 750 sq ft suites — the size of an ordinary two-bedroom Russian flat — with their own lavish bathroom and living room equipped with flat-screen television, internet access and fax machine to allow them to keep an eye on their businesses from their sickbeds.
The hospital, which is due to be completed next year, will be “as good as a five-star hotelâ€, said one of the managers overseeing the project.
“It’s aimed at Russia’s growing middle classes as well as the elite, including businessmen and members of the government.â€
“Abramovich is very keen to do his part to improve medical care in Russia,†said John Mann, the billionaire’s spokesman.
Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club with an estimated fortune of more than ?10 billion, is Russia’s richest man. He also backs a fund to help to train young health professionals.
Abramovich’s clinic will be in stark contrast to the majority of Russian hospitals, where the equipment sometimes dates back to the 1970s. Ordinary Russians — who under communism had free access to medical care — are at the mercy of a ruthless system dominated by bribes. Without greasing the palms of doctors and nurses, patients are condemned to long queues and negligent care.
When Abramovich, 40, bought Chelsea more than three years ago, he was criticized at home for not investing enough to improve life in Russia. His new hospital is unlikely to quell Russians’ deep resentment towards their fabulously rich oligarchs.
Popularity: 6% [?]
October 30, 2006
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