Quote Originally Posted by Alex_krsk View Post
Don't confuse just rich russians and oligarchs.
There are alot of Russians who made some money running fair business. And there much more of them then "oligarchs".
Well, probably some in the software industry and science. But it might be that Antonio and myself are seeing the not-so-nice people who have in fact taken their money and moved abroad because they have something to hide.

There are some very rich Russians living in my neighbourhood. I don't think they are oligarchs on par with Abramovich and similar, but they own properties that cost several million pounds. They have extremely expensive habits. Why do they live here at all?

My assumption is that they are somehow crooked. The family that I see the most is actually from Kazakhstan though. But they speak and look Russian.

I sometimes see other local Russians, only at the most expensive local places that I don't normally use/visit. No "regular" Russians live in this part of London. Most regular Russian speakers in London are from the Baltic states and live in other parts of the city.

But how else could these people have made that much money in under 20 years, and why do they move abroad? People don't normally get super rich that quickly. It only happens legally in Silicon Valley or Hollywood..... Not even the mafia get seriously rich that fast, and they combine business and criminality. I'd be very surprised if there is legitimate hard and honest work, or an invention behind their riches.

There are so many rich Russians moving into this part of London that they actually have Russian speaking staff in some of the real estate agencies. People who buy such expensive properties are usually Arabs with oil money, or people who inherited wealth. The odd well known mogul of a very big company. And then these "oligarchs".