Photograph by Flickr user ott1mo (CC-usage).

Translation of Jamil‘s post (RUS).

The Swiss French-language magazine Bilan has published its annual list of the country’s wealthiest individuals. Surprisingly, they included non-citizens of this wonderful European country. Titled Les 300 plus riches, the article details how much money lies in the pockets of those whose fate brought them to Switzerland and who evidently have accounts in the country’s famous banks.

As the local Russian-language newspaper, Nasha gazeta, notes, not all on the list are “true Swiss.”

People who made the list, both Swiss and resident foreigners, have at least 100 million francs. Obviously there are more than 300 of them, so in order to make the cut they have to arouse human interest with something other than their wealth. They are ‘sorted’ into different categories: richest overall, richest women, richest in a given canton, most successful in a given industry (banking, pharmaceuticals, chemical, trade and services, luxury goods and watch-making, art and sports, technology, construction and real estate. There is a separate list for the largest inheritances.

The list of the very richest is topped by Ingmar Kamprad, owner of Sweden’s IKEA, who, as Nasha gazeta notes, is ranked sixth-richest on the planet with 35 billion. In second place is Viktor Vekselberg.

The second section of the list, for fortunes under one billion, contains many new names. Attention now: among them is… Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Uzbekistan’s current president. She combines her job as the country’s permanent representative in the European section at the UN and other Geneva-based international organizations with a passion for designing jewelry, which she shares with Chopard. At 600-700 million, she is the ninth-richest woman in Switzerland.

Another few facts that readers from Kazakhstan might find interesting: first in the real estate section is Almaty’s native son Vassilii Anisimov, nicknamed the “Czar of Kazakh Aluminum” (1-1.5 billion). Former Almaty mayor Viktor Hrapunov, at 300-400 million, is a strong second. Former mayor, you ask?  Nasha gazeta concludes:

This is the picture. Note that ‘our people’ are completely missing from areas like art, sports, luxury and watch-making (although they are preferred customers of the latter two). Are their hands not skilled enough yet, or do they fail to compete on the same level? I’m sure we’ll have reason to discuss this topic later.