A new online poll released on Monday listed Russia’s most respected tycoons, though even the winner commanded the respect of less than a third of the 2,000 respondents.
London-based Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club and bitter enemy of exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky, led the top-10 with a fortune of an estimated $13.4 billion and the overall respect of 27.1 percent of the respondents.
Abramovich scored the highest on intuition, foresight, competitiveness, entrepreneurial acumen and business efficiency in the poll, which compared tycoons based on 18 criteria, but got the lowest marks on clean reputation, modesty and honesty, said Forbes Russia magazine, which ordered the poll from Profi Online Research company.
Presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov, whose assets are estimated at $18 billion, was the runner-up with a 23.8-percent respect and good scores for publicity and openness. His one-time business partner Vladimir Potanin (fortune estimated at $17.8 billion) ranked third with the respect of 19.5 percent of the populace and a very balanced score on all counts.
The top-5 also comprises Oleg Deripaska ($16.8 billion, 15.7-percent respect and top marks on toughness) and Yelena Baturina ($1.2 billion, 12.9 percent), the only woman on the list.
Also included were Oleg Boiko ($1 billion, 12.6 percent), Mikhail Fridman ($15.1 billion, 12.4 percent), Alexander Lebedev ($2.1 billion, 11.7 percent and leader on honesty), Gleb Fetisov ($1.6 billion, 10.7 percent) and Yury Kovalchuk ($1.5 billion, 10.2 percent).
The poll was limited to Russia’s top-100 wealthiest businessmen and did not give its margin of error. Interestingly, the top two names on the Forbes Russia 2011 richest businessmen list – Vladimir Lisin ($24 billion) and Alexei Mordashov ($18.5 billion) – did not make the top 10.
