Forbes magazine today introduced its fresh rating Forbes 400, which seems to be the most respected rating of the richest people of the planet. According to Forbes, this year's list broke records in size (1,210 billionaires) and total net worth ($4.5 trillion). The number of Chinese billionaires on the Forbes list doubled to 115; the number of Russians grew to 101, Indians to 55 and Brazilians to 30. USA is still the first with its 413 billionaires.
So Russia is now 3rd among other countries. Though Moscow now has more billionaires than any other city – 75 people (only 58 in New York). In other words, now every 12th billionaire in the world has Russian passport.
The richest Russian billionaire is Vladimir Lisin, Chairman of the board of directors Novolipetsk Steel. Lisin owns $24 billion wich puts him at 14 place in common rating. He is the only one Russian in the TOP-20 Forbes rating. Lisin is a proletarian success story, Forbes says. First job was as a mechanic in a coal mine. Then from steelworker in Siberia he moved towards dominating Russia's aluminium and steel exports along with group of traders called Trans-World Group. That was in early 90-s. Lisin managed the factories, and when the partners went their separate ways in 2000, Lisin got majority stake in Russia's giant Novolipetsk steel mill as his share.
