However, the businessmen themselves are not happy about it. They think it not fashionable today to be on billionaire lists. The top 100 include 36 billionaires and 64 businessmen with hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, ex-YUKOS chief who is now in jail on fraud and tax evasion charges, remains Russia’s richest man, with an estimated fortune of $15.2bn. At the bottom of the list is Ralif Safin, ex-top manager of LUKoil, with $210m.

When Forbes published its list of the world’s richest people in late February, it included only 25 Russians. In other words, the number of billionaires in Russia increased 40 percent in just 2.5 months, according to Forbes, and their total wealth rose from $79.4bn to $110bn.

Among new faces on the billionaire list are Peter Aven, President of Alfa Bank, Millhouse Director David Davidovich, Sibneft top manager Andrey Gorodilov, and Yelena Baturina, the owner of Inteko and wife of the Moscow Mayor.

Forbes analysts say the fortunes of these people topped $1bn by mid-April, partly due to Russia's booming stock market (the RTS index rose 21 percent on February 1 - April 15).