One notable statistic about Russia is that the mean wealth of its 110m adults last year was $10,980 while the median was $870. In other words, if the country’s assets were equally divided, the man in the middle would possess more than $10,000 but, in practice, his net worth is less than a 10th of that sum. This is the result of 110 billionaires controlling 35 per cent of the wealth.
Another result of these figures from the Credit Suisse Research Institute (and a Swiss bank should know) is that much of the money ends up elsewhere, in more stable and bankable places.
As one City of London lawyer observed to me this week: “If [President Vladimir] Putin is occupying territories with minority Russian-speaking populations, what about Kensington and Chelsea?”