The number of Russian billionaires and their combined fortunes doubled last year. This conclusion was made by the Forbes Russia magazine. The number of Russian billionaires rose to 62 from 32, while their combined fortune jumped to $297billion from $142billion. Forbes Russia notes that the main Russian stock index RTS also doubled during the same period, "although the economy has stagnated in general." Steel tycoon Vladimir Lisin took the top spot as his fortune rose to $15.8billion from $5.2billion a year ago. His revenues this year increased by $10.6 billion. The head of the Interross Vladimir Potanin, whose revenues grew by $8.2 billion, was able to acquit the most part of his debts. Technology and mining billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who was on top of the list last year, dropped to second place, despite increasing his fortune to $13.4billion from $9.5billion. Oil, telecoms and retail tycoon Mikhail Fridman (head of Alfa Group) came third with $12.7billion ($6.3 billion a year ago), while Chelsea owner and head of Chukotka Duma Roman Abramovich is in forth place with $11.2 billion ($8.5 billion a year ago). Alexander Lebedev, owner of the London Evening Standard and the Independent, is 34th with a fortune of $2billion, the head of Rusal Oleg Deripaska ($10.7 billion). The first 10 places are closed by the chairman of the board of directors of Uralkali Dmitri Ribolovlev ($8.6 billion). In the Golden list of the Forbes 2010 11 new names have also been included. Four Armenian billionaires have been included in a list of top 100 billionaires prepared by Forbes Russia magazine. Among them are Armenian developer Samvel Karapetyan with $750 million (91st), Danil Khachaturov with $1,2 billion, Nikolai and Sergey Sargisov brothers (74th and 75th) with $950 million each. This is $250 million more than their last year revenue. By the way, for the first time this list doesn’t include Boris Berezovsky. According to the Forbes the new list of Russian billionaires shows that the Russian businessmen have mainly overcome the crisis and acquitted the loss.
