For most of the decade, Russian billionaires spent hundreds of millions of dollars on boats, jets, expensive art and the occasional football team.

But, despite strained bank accounts and public outrage, the tycoons have been loath to part with their expensive trinkets, choosing instead to hunker down and wait for better days.

To be sure, these are not happy days for the country’s superrich.

In Forbes magazine‘s latest ranking of the world’s wealthiest people, Russia’s billionaires had an estimated collective loss of $369 billion last year, and two-thirds fell from the list altogether.

Moscow, which had 74 billionaires a year ago, more than any other city in the world, now finds itself with only 27.

But it seems that despite a disastrous economy in which he lost a reported $20 billion, Roman Abramovich, has sold none of his four yachts, which have been collectively dubbed the “Abramovich navy”.

He has said work continues on the fifth: the 168-meter, $290 million Eclipse, which reportedly will have a missile detection system and a detachable submarine to carry the billionaire to safety in case of attack.

Full article at The Moscow Times