Posted by
Rob on Friday, December 21, 2007 12:03:49 PM
Putin
has acquired $40 billion in his 8 years in office. In contrast, Saddam Hussein was estimated to
be worth only $6 billion in 1999, and one would imagine maybe $8-10 billion by the time he was deposed, depending on how quickly he spent money building bunkers. Queen Elizabeth II (the
fourth-longest reigning monarch in English history) is worth a
paltry $420 million. Well of course, you might say, England is not supposed to be an oligarchy. But what about people who are supposed to be making money, what about the billionaire CEO's out there?
Forbes has a list of course, Bill Gates at $56bn, Warren Buffet at $52bn, Carlos Helu at $49bn, and Ingvar Kamprad at $33bn. That makes Putin the fourth richest man in the world. And he made it in 8 years. That makes him the most successful entrepreneur of the bunch. And you thought
Time magazine was being political.
Putin posing for a monument.
But wait, not every Kremlinologist
agrees.
The dilemma now facing the Kremlin's elite is how to hang on to its
wealth if Putin leaves power, experts say. Most of its money is located
in the west, they add. The pressing problem is how to protect these
funds from any future administration that may seek to reclaim them. "There's
no point in having all this money if you can't travel to the Maldives
or Paris and spend it," Elena Panfilova, the director of Transparency
International in Russia said.
And suddenly, metaphysics interferes with reality yet again. If you are the 4th wealthiest man in the world but cannot spend a dime in Paris, are you rich?
My cousin once managed a call center in Texas for a rather unscrupulous owner. Every month they paid their phone bill to AT&T a little bit later. Eventually they were so far behind, AT&T had to grant all kinds of concessions to keep them a customer. "If you owe Ma Bell $100, they own you", the owner told my cousin, "but if you owe $10,000, you own them."
So, Mr Putin, when you have $100 in your pocket, it's yours to spend on accessories, but when you have $40 billion, you are the accessory to it. Enjoy your treasure, O Smaug the Invincible, and may the
fires burn in your belly.