RUSSIA’S NOUVEAUX RICHES SHAKE UP MONACO
Andrei Cherny
MosNews, Russia
Oct 6 2005
Russia’s newly affluent flaunt their wealth on Cote d’Azur with
oligarch Roman Abramovich setting the pace. The hot spot where Arabian
sheiks and American millionaires once came to gamble is now crowded
with Russians and Ukrainians.
Monaco is a sickle-like strip of prosperous land terracing up the
mountains and cascading down toward the sea, with a population
of 30,000, only 7,000 holding citizenship. A toy state sandwiched
between France and Italy, it is one of the most affluent countries in
Europe. Flowers, palms, and greenery on every square inch of land;
marinas packed with yachts; streets looking as though they have
just been shampooed; restaurants, boutiques, casinos, nightclubs,
and sandy beaches. Monaco is a country of legitimate luxury, one of
the most expensive and exclusive places in Europe. People from all
over the world come here to spend their money. This past summer has
seen a “Russian boom.”
“We’ve been working in Monaco for 22 years and have not until recently
seen any Russians here. They appeared three years ago, but this year
they have made our season!” Chantal Sobra, director of the Louis
Vuitton store, says. The three-level, renovated, sparkling Vuitton
is one of the most expensive boutiques on the coast.
“Russians are au courant on everything – competition, new products,
the latest trends.
“And they are tres chic,” the director says amid a flurry of activity
around three Russian women clients. The provincial looking Russians
are ordering about a sales assistant with the help of sign language
and are terribly reminiscent of Cinderella’s sisters from the prewar
Russian film.
“I was walking about Monte Carlo and I saw this shop. I had just
been given a watch from that firm. I walked in. A similar model
cost $40,000. But mine has fewer diamonds so it’s probably worth
just $20,000,” a Barbie kind of girl says plaintively to her macho
companions at Cafe de Paris.
There are legends about Russians in Monaco.
This week, a Russian sugar daddy with several female companions had
breakfast at a restaurant, shelling out 110,000 euros and then giving
a 10,000 tip.
An unfamiliar word, screamed out in a horrifying voice, attracted
everyone’s attention at Casino SUN. Three-hundred thousand euros that
an unknown Russian lost in one fell swoop enriched the Monegasques’
vocabulary with a Russian profanity. The loser walked out of the hall,
while the game continued as usual.
The beach at the Beach Hotel is the best in Monaco: It is used by the
prince himself. Yet even here everyone was stunned by the appearance
of a boy of about 10 with a wad of pink 500-euro bills, saying:
“Dad gave it to me to celebrate my birthday!”
Last year, the yacht of a minor oil tycoon called at the Port
d’Hercule. At midnight, its lights went up to the accompaniment of
disco music. Before long, however, the yacht’s owner lost moorage
rights and was told never to enter Monaco waters again. Well, you
don’t argue with the prince.
Still, the more money they spend, the better. Even the harsh traffic
police try not to fine the drunk drivers of luxury cars when they
leave casinos.
Monaco’s uncrowned king – Societe des Bains de Mer (SBM) which owns
the country’s best hotels, casinos, and banks – has for the past one
and a half centuries been managing its properties with an iron hand.
Each SBM hotel, where prices start at $1,500 for a single room, has
luxury suites at 2,000 to 7,000 euros a night during the high season.
Earlier, they were used only by Arab sheiks and U.S. millionaires.
Today, Russians seem to have crowded them out.
“The local atmosphere of permanent holiday and festivity produces
a strong psychological effect. This summer, very serious money has
been won and lost at Monte Carlo,” Alex Oppenot, the SBM marketing
director, says.
SBM sees the “Russian invasion” as renaissance – the Return: After
all, the place was a favorite with Russia’s grand dukes; there were
Diaghilev Russian seasons and Nijinsky shows, and Russian industrial
magnates played the roulette wheel here.
The new Russians’ lineage does not really matter: What counts is
their money. Today, they have loads of money. One indication of this
are the prices at Russian art auctions.
A recent match between a Russian and a Monaco soccer club, according
to Alex Oppenot, increased the Russian presence in Monte Carlo by 64
percent. The match was not simply a sporting event but an excellent
opportunity for self-promotion. Attendance at the stadium is a sign
of affiliation with the caste of wealthy, happy, and successful. The
number one name here is Roman Abramovich. His appearance at Monte
Carlo, which has seen plenty, created a stir: Roman and his party
on the coast; Roman and his yacht, the Pelarus (resembling rather
a warship); Roman and his girlfriends – according to eyewitness
accounts, not quite of age; Roman at Jimmy’z, a night club where a
glass of water costs 40 euros.
The blatant flaunting of wealth is an infectious example for dozens
of his Russian compatriots.
Real estate is the first and foremost concern for Russians on Cote
d’Azur. Villa prices range from 70 million to 200 million euros, but
at Cannes, Cap Ferra, Antibes, and especially Monaco, everything has
already been bought up. La Vigie, a three-level villa overlooking
Monte Carlo’s best beach (80,000 a month) was rented by a Russian
for the entire swimming season – April through October.
Yachts are another important prestige factor. There is a kind of
tacit competition for yacht size. Every extra meter costs about 1
million. Yacht builders meet at Port d’Hercule every year, showing
their products, striking deals, and taking orders.
Finally, the life style. There are more car showrooms than groceries
here. A Maybach or a Lamborghini here costs one-half of what it does,
e.g. in France, where the luxury tax is charged. Motor vehicles
parked outside the Grand Casino, built by the legendary Garnier and
reminiscent of the Opera de Paris building, are not to be seen anywhere
else. You cannot, however, drive to neighboring Nice in such a car,
gold coast people complain: Its body will be scratched or its tires
will be slashed there. You’ve got to live in Monaco: It has everything
– golf fields, tennis courts, sea baths, and spa salons.
Russians in Monaco are clients who must not be humiliated by low
prices, especially when comfort, heat and excitement are closely
intertwined.
The Monte-Carlo Casino overlooking the Mediterranean is the best
known casino in the world. Royal persons and upstarts, aristocratic
old ladies and golden youth, cardsharpers and spies have all played
there. These include fortune seekers from the CIS. They are referred
to indiscriminately as “Russians.” As a matter of fact, they are
Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Moldovans, Armenians, etc. A running joke here
has it that one day the Monegasques will learn to tell Kazakhs
from Belarusians as they once learned to distinguish between the
Japanese and Chinese. The naive SBM managers are going to introduce
a special seminar to teach Russians “civilized gambling” – i.e.,
how to play cards without relying on luck alone. They must not have
read Dostoyevsky’s The Gambler.
On Avenue des Beaux-Arts, a tiny street in downtown Monaco comprised of
luxury boutiques and jewelry houses, the strong smell of petrodollars
is converted into the fragrance of orchids. Fall-season collections
have been swept by a hurricane from Russia. One of the most popular
types of massage on the list offered to SBM luxury hotel clients is
“after-shopping massage.” This year, Monaco’s couture stores have
seen their profits rise 30 to 40 percent – mainly due to Russian and
Ukrainian money.
“This summer, Americans stayed at home: Because of the dollar’s low
exchange rate, it is unprofitable to travel to Europe. The Arabs have
their own problems to deal with. There are also very few Japanese:
They are afraid of terrorist attacks on airplanes. If it was not
for the Russians, we would have been left without any profit,” SBM
managers say.
The exuberant lifestyles and spending practices that Russians,
dizzy with the unlimited opportunities, demonstrated at first
by buying the most expensive things, are now giving way to the
“getting-into-the-mainstream” ambition – i.e., being like everyone
else. Today, SBM managers believe, wealthy Russians are striving to
be accepted into the fold of civilization. The Monegasques, however,
only want to see the tip of the iceberg – that is to say, profits
from the Russians’ exuberant spending practices.
Prince Albert, the patron of sports, however, objected to the
idea of selling the Monaco soccer club to a Russian businessman,
Aleksei Fedorychev, saying that the club must not be in the hands of
a foreigner. That was the first time when the issue of the provenance
of money came up. Nevertheless, that did not prevent Fedorychev from
becoming the main sponsor of the Monaco club.
Russian oligarchs, raised on oil, natural gas, and god knows what else,
seem to be living in total ignorance of their own country – vast and
impoverished, with low living standards and high mortality rates.