London is turning into “Londongrad” for a growing number of Russia’s nouveau riche who see the British capital as a comfortable tax haven.
“They buy in the most expensive areas — Knightsbridge, Belgravia, Chelsea, Mayfair, Kensington,” said Tatiana Baker, a Russian who deals with these very special clients for upmarket real-estate agents Harrods Estate.
“They spend between £500 000 and £11-million [between R5,5-million and R121-million] for a pied-à -terre. They pay cash. They don’t have a mortgage,” she said.
“They are very concerned about security and what is the most important for them is 24/7 security. In Moscow, they always have bodyguards with them.”
London mayor Ken Livingstone, a life-long socialist who once claimed that capitalism had taken more victims than Hitler, is bending over backwards these days to attract Russian millionaires.
They’re wooed by ads in top people’s magazines, stands at Moscow trade fairs and a Russian festival in London in January followed by a forum on economics Russian-style that each April attracts a posse of business kingpins.
“Ever since the mayor was elected, Russia has been a priority for work. It has paid off in a big way,” a spokesperson for Livingstone said.
“Russian companies are the single largest foreign companies listing on the London Stock Exchange — $4-billion last year. All indications are that it will be higher next year.”
Nearly 250Â 000 Russians live in London, experts say.
Some of Russia’s best-known oligarchs are among them, such as Boris Berezovsky, who has claimed political asylum; Roman Abramovich, who owns Chelsea football club; and reputedly Tatyana Dyachenko, daughter of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
Having made colossal fortunes following the chaotic break-up of the former Soviet Union, they are now looking for safe havens abroad by turning their attentions to the West.
The example of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former chief executive of oil giant Yukos, is a cautionary tale.
Once Russia’s richest man, he now is serving a nine-year sentence in Siberia for fraud following a trial considered by many to have been politically motivated.
London, just three hours by air from Moscow, has always been the financial centre ready to welcome large fortunes with open arms, whether from Arab oil as in the 1970s or Siberian metals today.
But it is more than communist Karl Marx’s tomb in Highgate cemetery that attracts the “new Russians”: it is a more advantageous tax regime, a legion of lawyers for their litigation and the upmarket boutiques of Bond Street.
At Harvey Nichols, the luxury department store in Knightsbridge, high-cheekboned Russian women with long blonde hair tumbling over their fur collars crowd around the Dolce and Gabbana and Balenciaga.
Eager to make a fuss over their extravagant new clientele, the store has recruited 10 Russian-speaking sales assistants.
“London has the largest population of Russian billionaires outside Moscow,” explained Harvey Nichols spokesperson Richard Gray. “Money is not an issue for them. There is no limit to what they can spend.
“There are women who come with pages from Russian Vogue and when they shop for the latest handbag, they buy seven.” — AFP