Lifestyles
A brand new generation of millionaires
Sixty percent of Russians believe that the striving for power is inherent in their rich compatriots, - such data is cited by the Institute of Comprehensive Social Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, when drawing their own portrait, modern Russian millionaires single out quite different features.
The richest of the well-off people in Russia make up about 1.5% of the population of the country. These are about 700,000 families (a total of 2 million people) whose capitals, including all the forms of property owned by them, reach $1 million and more. Among their distinctive features, those who maintain such families (and it is a woman in every tenth case) emphasize vigor, enterprise, industriousness, professionalism and a high level of education. Well-off Russians are sure that it is these features that helped them to achieve the current material and social status.
- "In recent years, 'a young' elite has formed. Its representatives did not take part in the initial privatization campaign in the early 1990s", says Natalya Tikhonova, deputy director of the Institute of Comprehensive Social Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In recent years, 'a young' elite has formed
- "This is a brand new generation of millionaires, aged 40-45. They are smart, talented and often quite close to the intellectual elite. With their competitiveness and interest in the progress of the Russian economy, new millionaires could well be useful to the whole population of the country, developing a socially responsible business, the need for which is being so widely discussed now".
"In Russia, only a third of the rich do not have poor relatives and friends in their inner circle. Those who have them, help their poor relatives, as a rule. Such mutual assistance is in the traditions of Russian culture. Suspicions and hatred for the rich in Russia is pure fiction. Seventy percent of Russians are quite tolerant with regard to their well-off compatriots," concludes Natalya Tikhonova.