Stanhope forbes biography of christopher columbus

When you hear the word “oligarch”, you might imagine someone like Farkhad Akhmedov, one of the 50 wealthiest Russians. In his book Mastering the Universe, economics professor Rob Larson writes that Akhmedov’s personal superyacht features a pair of helipads, a mini-submarine, and a pool across nine decks. His enjoyment of this floating “beast” is marred only by his anxiety about “keeping it from his ex-wife”.

The amount of wealth hoarded by Russian businessmen is staggering. Forbesestimates Akhmedov’s 2025 net worth at $1.6 billion. To put that into perspective, imagine an immortal being, perhaps a vampire, travelling to the New World with Christopher Columbus in 1492. Every day since then, the vampire somehow acquires the equivalent of 1,000 contemporary American dollars. He never spends any of it. Perhaps he just stacks the money in coffins. The vampire will become a millionaire by sometime in 1495. In 2025, though, he’ll still be less than a fifth of the way to having a billion dollars.

Akhmedov is clearly very wealthy. Yet if he were an American, he wouldn’t even make it into the list of the 400 wealthiest US citizens. Why, then, does Russia have “oligarchs” while America apparently only has

•