"Guys like us, we had it made..."
There's only one overtly political paragraph here, but the rest is a window on Russians "of normal social status."Utopia with no poor people: Moscow's new billionaire's row
"With birds twittering gently in the background, Aras Agalarov [at left] explains why he has decided to build a housing estate for Russia's super-rich."Next to him work has almost finished on a vast neo-classical villa; down the muddy track a Scottish baronial mansion rises magnificently above a line of newly planted birch trees.
"'The people who will live here are of normal social status,' Mr Agalarov says...
"The idea is for Russia's new billionaire elite to live here happily together. Mr Agalarov describes his project as a kind of utopian social experiment - but without poor people...
"The estate boasts an 18-hole golf course and an exclusive private school.
"There are also 14 artificial lakes, waterfalls and a spa and beach resort with imported white sand...
"Residents are forbidden from hanging out washing, carrying out home improvements, or letting off fireworks. Additionally, all bodyguards will be banished to small houses on the edge of the community.
"'Most families have five or six bodyguards. Two hundred families means 1,000 bodyguards,' Mr Agalarov says...
"Those who have grown rich under Vladimir Putin are not only plugged into Russia's oil and gas industry. They also include many well-connected Kremlin bureaucrats, some with homes in Kensington or the south of France...
"The development is likely to be completed by 2009. The only obstacle spoiling Mr Agalarov's vision of paradise is the hamlet of Voronino, which abuts the watery edge of the estate.
"The tycoon has managed to buy 14 of its 28 houses - with a view to demolishing them..."
Labels: civil society, leadership, Russia
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:30 PM
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