home > by publication type > must reads > Guardian: Utopia with No Poor People: Moscow's New Billionaire's Row
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| Author: | Luke Harding |
|---|
October 10, 2007
Summary:
This Guardian article offers a glimpse into the lifestyles of Russia's super-rich by examining a new housing development for the country's elites. The 850 acre complex will eventually house over 150 mansions, 14 artificial lakes, waterfalls and a spa and beach resort with imported white sand. The developer insists the place is for "people of normal social status."
Excerpt:
With birds twittering gently in the background, Aras Agalarov explains why he has decided to build a housing estate for Russia's super-rich.
Next to him work has almost finished on a vast neo-classical villa; down the muddy track a Scottish baronial mansion rises magnificently above a line of newly planted birch trees.
"The people who will live here are of normal social status," Mr Agalarov says. "But there are certain rules. One potential buyer had an Afghan shepherd dog. We don't allow big dogs on this estate. So I wouldn't sell him a house.
"Can you imagine," he says, chuckling. "I lost $30m because of a dog!"
Mr Agalarov is a billionaire Russian property developer. He is also a man with a vision: to build the most exclusive housing community in Russia, if not the world.
The idea is for Russia's new billionaire elite to live here happily together. Mr Agalarov describes his project as a kind of utopian social experiment - but without poor people.
"I've planted all those trees to hide the village over there," he says, pointing beyond a fence to a row of dilapidated dachas. The estate is currently being fashioned on a 340-hectare (850 acres) meadow in the Istra region outside Moscow, dotted with fir trees and white camomile flowers. Several villas have been completed.
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