Russian billionaires
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 after decades of communist rule, it was a monumental event full of hope and new possibilities.

• Mikhail Khodorkovsky
  posted on December 17, 2007 - 03:32:12 am
  
  Mikhail Khodorkovsky, 40, Russia's wealthiest man, made his first fortunes in banking.
  
  
• Vladimir Gusinksy
  posted on December 17, 2007 - 03:05:46 am
  
  Vladimir Gusinksy, 51, emerged from the underground economy of the era of the Soviet Union, like many of Russia's oligarchs.
  
  
• Mikhail Fridman
  posted on December 12, 2007 - 03:49:50 am
  
  Mikhail Fridman, 39, was born in 1964 in Lvov, on the western border of Ukraine.
  
  
• Oleg Deripaska
  posted on December 12, 2007 - 03:47:32 am
  
  Oleg Deripaska, born in 1968, is Russia's youngest billionaire at age 35.
  
  
• Boris Berezovksy
  posted on December 12, 2007 - 03:44:07 am
  
  Boris Berezovksy, 57, helped popularize the term "oligarch" and is perhaps the most controversial of the group.
  
  
• Vagit Alekperov
  posted on October 23, 2007 - 04:51:09 pm
  
  Vagit Alekperov, 52, was born in 1950 in Baku, Azerbaijan, one of the earliest centers of the international petroleum industry.
  
  
• Russian billionaires
  posted on October 21, 2007 - 01:04:59 am
  
  In Russia today, just a handful of oligarchs control 85 percent of the value of the country's leading private companies.
  
  
• Roman Abramovich
  posted on October 21, 2007 - 12:47:58 am
  
  Roman Abramovich, 37, one of the youngest and most influential of Russia's oligarchs, remained largely unknown until recently.