No matter what your background, no matter how much money you have, when times are hard it's important to economise.
So perhaps it's not surprising that Roman Abramovich, Russia's second-richest man, has decided to get extra value from his connection with football coach Guus Hiddink. The Dutchman's contractual details are, of course, a private matter, but it's not too fanciful to imagine the Chelsea owner, who already pays Hiddink's salary to coach the Russian national side, concluding that inviting him to replace sacked coach Luis Felipe Scolari at Stamford Bridge represented smart value for money.
Abramovich is just one of many wealthy Russians who have been hit hard by the global economic crisis. As oil prices plummet, gas sales suffer disruption and the construction industry downs tools, the top 20 tycoons have seen their combined fortunes slump to a mere $106 billion, compared with $227 billion last year. Meanwhile 52 former billionaires have lost that exalted status and must now contend with the more down to earth world of the millionaire instead.
It seems that Russia's merchants of bling may be facing tough times ahead - an icy blast of recession reality is set to intrude on their fantasy world of conspicuous consumption.
Not that there's a huge amount of sympathy among ordinary Russians.
Eleanora Gilyova, 28, a Moscow office worker who was laid off late last year, admitted it was "difficult" to be rich in Russia, but added: "The ugly thing is that most of them are so spoiled."
Others were sarcastic: "If losing a few thousand roubles upsets me, imagine how these poor souls must feel after losing so much," said Irina Balashova, 26, currently clinging on to a secretarial job at a Moscow firm.
No wonder Troika Dialog managing director Andrei Sharonov told reporters this week: "In terms of public opinion these guys are not heroes, so it's not something that arouses much pity."
That's hardly surprising: the likes of Oleg Deripaska may have lost 86 per cent of his personal fortune and plummeted down the prestigious league table of lucre, but with $4.9 billion to fall back on he's hardly in the same league as a ZiL plant worker facing a three-day week until August.
Deripaska himself, identified as Russia's richest man by Forbes magazine a year ago, always insisted that his status ignored the aggressive borrowing policies of his companies - and with his major interests in the hard-pressed energy, construction and metals sectors that claim seems to have been borne out by this year's events.
Mikhail Prokhorov, often described as Russia's most eligible bachelor, has leapt from the tabloid gossip columns to the top of the rich list. He may have lost about $5 billion, but with a cool $14 billion left, he looks to have made the smartest moves of all the oligarchs perhaps as the storm has engulfed his ambitious counterparts. Now the unmarried 43-year-old might be looking to his love of kickboxing as an inspiration to fight back and protect his stake in Deripaska's heavily indebted RusAl.
Abramovich himself remains in second place, despite a $9 billion loss which reduced his value to $14 billion. A side effect of that might be Chelsea's dwindling buying power in the English Premiership: the club's failure to outbid the Middle East backers of Manchester City for the services of Robinho could be a taste of things to come as Hiddink looks to lead the Blues to more trophies this season.
Yet for all the turmoil facing Russia's financial elite, the spending doesn't seem to be stopping just yet.
Less than a week after financial journalist Roger Bootle told Britain's Daily Telegraph that "even Russian oligarchs seem to be feeling the pinch" as he reflected on a property slump in the leafy squares of Kensington and Belgravia, The Observer reported the reverse.
An article at the weekend claimed that "foreign buyers" from France, Italy and - of course - Russia were leading a rise in interest in London real estate. Apparently the weak pound was inspiring a return of the half-forgotten yuppie tactic of gazumping - hijacking agreed sales with an inflated last minute bid.
And while Abramovich tries to rein in his Chelsea spending and Russian-Israeli businessman Alexander Gaidamak is rumoured to be discreetly trying to sell Portsmouth, Alisher Usmanov, 10th on the list at $4.5 billion, is consolidating his position in Arsenal's boardroom. His investment vehicle Red and White Holdings, based on the channel island tax haven of Jersey, announced this week that he had increased his stake in the North London club to over 25 per cent.
Along with the Russia Forbes list, which comes out in April, Finans magazine' survey is regarded as one of the most reliable indicators of the country's wealthiest tycoons.
What money can buy
Top 20 now worth $106Bln
The combined wealth of Russia's top 20 oligarchs totals $106 billion. If they were a country, they would rank 58th in the world according to GDP, nestling between Libya and Slovakia. Yet their combined losses of $227 billion is almost exactly equal to the GDP of Hong Kong.
If Deripaska's sharply reduced circumstances are forcing him to economise, things aren't looking too black for him. After laying off the chauffeur and selling the obligatory limo, his remaining $5 billion will pay for roughly 8.1 billion metro journeys across Moscow. Even taking a trio of security guards with him would still allow over 2 billion trips!
According to figures from Christian Aid, the money lost by Deripaska - $35 billion - could have built almost 10 million flood-resistant homes in India with environmentally friendly bio-gas power and running water.
His losses would also have bailed out stricken British bank HBOS more than twice over, based on their recently revealed £10 billion loss.
But the combined losses of the Russian oligarchs still wouldn't cover Barack Obama's recovery package for the U.S. economy. The $787 billion plan approved this week is almost three and a half times more expensive than the slide recorded on the latest rich list.
1. Mikhail Prokhorov - $14.1 billion, Onexim
2. Roman Abramovich - $13.9 billion, Millhouse Capital
3. Vladimir Lisin - $7.7 billion, Novolipetsk Steel
4. Vagit Alekperov - $7.6 billion, LUKoil
5. Suleiman Kerimov - $7.5 billion, Nafta-Moskva
6. Mikhail Fridman - $6.1 billion, Alfa Group
7. Vladimir Potanin - $5.0 billion, Interros
8. Oleg Deripaska - $4.9 billion, Basic Element
9. Dmitry Rybolovlyov - $4.6 billion, Uralkali
10. Alisher Usmanov - $4.5 billion, Metalloinvest
11. Leonid Fedun - $4.5 billion, LUKoil
12. Boris Ivanishvili - $4.3 billion, Unikor
13. Alexander Abramov - $4.1 billion, Evraz Group
14. Alexei Mordashov - $4.1 billion, Severstal
15. German Khan - $3.9 billion, Alfa Group
16. Alexei Kuzmichyov - $3.05 billion, Alfa Group
17. Viktor Vekselberg - $3.0 billion, Renova Group
18. Filaret Galchev - $2.8 billion, Eurocement
19. Anatoly Sedykh - $2.5 billion, OMK
20. Nikolai Tsvetkov - $2.3 billion, UralSib
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