Magazine for super-rich has real Snob appeal

RUSSIA'S super-rich love to flaunt their wealth, and soon they will have a magazine, called Snob, to help them.

Mikhail Prokhorov, who is said to be worth £11 billion, plans to spend £75 million setting up a magazine, website and TV station called Snob.

Many Russians have become wealthy over the past few years, due to a boom in commodity and energy prices, and Moscow's super-rich regularly hold wild caviar and champagne parties in exclusive nightclubs.

Mr Prokhorov, 42, made his fortune in the 1990s when businessmen bought up parts of former Soviet industries for a fraction of their real value. He co-owns Norilsk Nickel, the world's biggest nickel producer, and Polyus Gold, Russia's biggest gold company. Forbes Rich List ranked him as the world's 24th richest person.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a snob as "a person who has an exaggerated respect for high social position or wealth and who looks down on those regarded as socially inferior".

But Andrei Shmarov, who will run the Snob operation, said it had a different meaning in Russia. "Snob to us means a person who is a self-made man, a person who has gained a right to snobbishness," he said.