Filthy rich: but how do you spend it?

If you're rich in Russia, there are endless ways to spend your money.

If you're rich in Russia, there are endless ways to spend your money.

One billionaire, Viktor Vekselberg, paid the Forbes family €80 million for their collection of imperial Easter eggs made by Carl Fabergé, the 19th century Russian jeweller to the tsars.

Others, like Roman Abramovich, have spent up to €250 million on yachts.

On the streets of Moscow, the wealthiest display their riches in the fur coats and jewellery that adorn their wives and girlfriends, or both.

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Finance magazine yesterday suggested some other ways that money can be redistributed, with "escorts" costing €800 and expensive bouquets of flowers priced at up to €2,500.

Naturally, few ever see the rich in broad daylight.

Instead, they get chauffeured around Moscow in a fleet of fast cars, usually with a black SUV or two full of bodyguards both fore and aft.

When they exit a building, it's like watching the US secret service rush into place, communicating via earpieces before pulling away at high speed.