Rich Bastard Update (I): Wealthiest Hungarian Actually Russian

Leading daily Népszabadság released its annual list of "richest Hungarians" yesterday. As with all such rankings of the super-rich, the list was eagerly anticipated and instantly chewed over by the country's status-obsessed elite. It also contains a few new twists. For one thing, this year's list has 150 people, rather than the traditional 100. It also features foreigners living in Hungary, which helps to explain why the richest man in Hungary isn't actually a Hungarian. Instead, thanks to the new inclusiveness, our new top dog is a Russian, Medget Rahimkulov (right), majority owner of Általános Értékforgalmi Bank (General Banking and Trust Co., Ltd.), who has somehow socked away Ft 83 billion (€328 million) during his 11 years living in Hungary.

Another sort-of surprise is that the second man on the list is OTP Bank Rt CEO Sándor Csányi, with an estimated Ft 60 billion. This means that Csányi is now "officially" the richest Hungarian, having somehow doubled his wealth in the last year, and leapfrogging over such perennial list-toppers as developer Sándor Demján, Fotex founder Gábor Várszegi and industrialist Gábor Széles, who are said to have Ft 50 billion each.

Most interesting of all is the poor showing of Hungary's forint billionaires vis-à-vis their peers in the region. According to Népszabadság, not a single Hungarian is among the 100 richest Eastern Europeans, even though almost every country in the region is represented on that list. Meanwhile, forget about the rest of the world, according to other reports, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates made more than twice as much money last year in stock sales as Hungary's richest man has to his name, even if you count non-Hungarians.