Russian Billionaires

[4GS]

Seeing as Russia was ruled by the Communist party from 1917 until the early 1990's where did all these billionaires come from?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/dailymai l/home.html?in_page_id=1766&ito=1490

I thought the idea of a socialist utopia meant that wealth was evenly distributed, so how come people like the guy in the article and others like the owner of Chelsea FC get so darn rich so darn quick?

[Gromit]

With the fall of communist rule, capitalist market forces came in. To cut a long story short, the politicians gave away Russias assets to their friends, who in turn gave the politicians money to get elected (sound familiar?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_oligarch

[jno]

Gromit's spot-on. In particular, Putin told the oligarchs he didn't care how rich they got but that politics was his job, not theirs. Some of them, however, forgot; once they got rich they got to thinking this made them fit to rule the country (despite the fact that they hadn't actually had to work at wealth, it was handed to them on a plate), and they started up political parties. Result: a lot of oligarchs behind bars. Google Khodorkovsky, for instance. Abramovich and Berezovsky are among those in exile in Britain, facing prosecution if they return, the poor dears.

It has been pointed out that most of those in trouble are Jewish; curious but I don't think it's any more than coincidence.