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From Red Square to Trafalgar - the Russians are coming
16 Jan 2009THERE are nights in the Wolseley bar when you could be forgiven for thinking you're in Moscow. Not that we're complaining. Russian restaurant-goers know how to enjoy themselves and - even post-crunch - they certainly spend more money than us.
Across the road in Bond Street, the Dolce & Gabbana changing rooms are still regularly packed out with blonde Muscovites dripping hair extensions and Graff jewels.
According to one Michelin-starred chef, pre-recession the "New Londontsy" pushed up the price of black market Beluga caviar to £1,500 a kilo. Even late last year, with the UK heading into a downturn, Russian Standard vodka splashed £8 million on their push into the British market.
London has become just the kind of town where a Russian oligarch can feel right at home. At the end of last year, Peter London, an art dealer with a special interest in Russia, said: "There are now almost 400,000 Russians living in London, including countless millionaires." Estate agent Knight Frank claims nearly a quarter of all its property transactions over £8 million are with Russians.
Last summer, the largest private house in London - a £50 million Highgate mansion with 90 bedrooms - was sold to Elena Baturina, the wife of Moscow's mayor.
And she's in good company. The capital's Russian guest list is nothing if not glamorous, featuring Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich and his arts patron girlfriend Dasha Zhukova; the supermodel Natalia Vodianova and her husband, property heir Justin Portman, and jeweller Stephen Webster and his St Petersburg-born wife Anastasia.
The latest pastime for Moscow's elite is to scan the pages of the new Russian Tatler for tips on our best schools. Sasha Novikova, daughter of restaurateur Arkady Novikov (Russia's Gordon Ramsay), is studying in London. Young ambitious Russians flock to Central St Martins and the LSE. A Russian preschool has opened in Richmond and Russian pupils are common at top prep and public schools.
Russian investment has flowed lavishly into London's arts scene. Roman Abramovich has sponsored several exhibitions of Soviet photography and last year's Summer Party at the Serpentine Gallery was a joint project with Dasha Zhukova's Moscow art gallery, Garage. Moscow-born art fans bankroll many of our artists: Lucian Freud, Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin are all favourites. And in the post-Soviet era, the Russians also want to secure their own cultural legacy: in November 2008, Sotheby's London sold £136 million worth of Russian art.
The New Russians have found it hard to shake a reputation for extravagance, even if the ladies of Londongrad - as Vogue first dubbed them - have started to favour Topshop and vintage over Roberto Cavalli and Balenciaga.
Even as the recession bites, Russians are still organising events with the help of the oligarch's party planner of choice, Urban Caprice. And they are still booking tables at their old favourites: Le Caprice, La Poule au Pot and Hakkasan. Top of everyone's wishlist is membership of the new Ivy Club where you can order sushi in the top-floor chill-out bar - a little taste of the old country (Muscovites love raw fish).
London is no longer what they used to call it in the Soviet era: "tumanny Albion" ("foggy England"), grey and mysterious. It's the land of opportunity. In fact there is now so much Anglo-Russian traffic that Aeroflot's fully-booked Moscow-London weekend flights have a new nickname. They call it "getting on the bus home".
KEY PHRASES
Pochemu ulitsa Bond tak korotka?
Why is Bond Street so short?
Poddel'niy mekh? Chto ti imeesh' v vidu, poddel'niy mekh?
Fake fur? What do you mean "fake" fur?
A futbol'niy klub Chelsea takzhe prodayotsya?
Is Chelsea Football Club for sale too?
Eta yakhta prisposobit skol'ko politicheskikh?
How many politicians can this yacht hold?
Skol'ko stoit gaz dlya samalyotov teper'?
How is the price of jet fuel today?
Kogda budet po nastoyashemu kholodno?
When are we going to get some REALLY cold weather?
Esli tseni londonskikh domov padayut, mozhno li vstavat' nizkoye predlozheniye - govorim £25 mill'on - dlya doma na Bishop's Avenue?
If London house prices are falling, can I put in a low bid of £25m for one on Bishop's Avenue?
Razve ti ne zovesh' chelovek svoem otchestvom, David Richardovich Dimbleby?
What do you mean, you don't refer to a man by his patronymic, David Richardovich Dimbleby?
Knyaz' Kharri? Tbye ne govoril o tom, kak mi izbavlyayemsya ot svoenravnikh knyaz'i?
Prince Harry? Did I ever tell you how we deal with wayward royal princes?
Razve ti ne ponimaesh' chto bol'she ne suschestvuyet staromodnovo, vodku-pyuschevo, polu-kommunisticheskovo, shapku-nadeyuschevo stereotipa?
Don't you realise that the old vodka-drinking, crypto-communist, fur-hat-wearing stereotypes no longer apply?
Reader views (7)
People are just envious !! God bless rich and poor alike!
- Ludmilla Ellis, London , Chingford, UK, 02/12/2009 16:26
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Wish they would go home. Nasty people, no one likes them, ditto here in Tenerife.
- Mel Barrows, Tenerife. Canary Islands., 02/12/2009 15:26
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This article is full of envy...poor West Europe, it's really hard to realise that somebody could live better...
- Elena, Moscow, 02/12/2009 15:26
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Your russian phrases are illiterate and not very funny. And not really in russian language.
- Sasha, london uk, 02/12/2009 15:26
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to Sasha: I completely agree with you
- Irina, St.-Petersburg, 02/12/2009 15:26
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The key phrases are very funny. So good in fact, I thought I was actually reading the Times website.
- Colin Larcombe, Orléans, France, 02/12/2009 15:26
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So, all these russians made their money legitimally,
morally and through good business sense did they??
I dont think so!!! Do we want these people here????
- Jameson, Grantham Lincolnshire, 02/12/2009 15:26
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