If recent estimates are believed, who is, according to amounts of money embezzled for personal gain, the most corrupt world leader of all time?
Hehehe! Nice try! But no! This tyrant also makes Thatcher's destruction of freedom and disregard for the common man look like nothing more than some measures put in place by an over-officious kindergarted teacher.
Could he perhaps be Russian? And perhaps newly re-elected amid a storm of protests from opposition leaders?
Spot on. According to a recent estimate, this is Vladmir Putin's wealth...... ....acquired from formerly state-owned companies, which "fell" into his caring hands. 37% of Surgutneftgas ($18 billion) 4.5% of Gasprom ($13 billion) 50% of Gunvar (oil) ($10 billion) He is also believed to be a major controlling shareholder in another major Russian oil player, Rossneft. If these figures are true, Putin's personal fortune would amount to somewhere in the region of $41 billion. These stats were published last week in Die Welt, a respected German broadsheet, the source being Stanislav Belkovsky, a very well connected former Kremlin insider who initiated proceedings in the Yukos affair (and is now presumably exiled after this little revelation!). This would make Putin one of the world's ten wealthiest people, and easily surpasses the amounts embezzled my Ferdinand Marcos, and that Mobutu guy from Zaire. $41 billion whilst 85% of your country live in poverty. Jesus wept.
