Economic chills, including large stock market falls, have severely diminished the once prodigious spending power of the Russian oligarchs, but some can still afford to treat themselves to such British status-symbols as white-stuccoed houses in Belgravia, newspapers and the rest. The price must be right, however. Alexander Lebedev, below, Russia’s 39th richest man, a tycoon with an intellectual bent, is paying a “very nominal sum” - probably just £1 - for the Evening Standard.
This quest for a competitively priced opportunity is guiding Russians in their search among the bargains now on offer in the best streets of Belgravia, Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Mayfair, neighbourhoods that, as Jonathan Hewlett, of the estate agent Savills, says, have become a “toyshop” for Russians, as a result of the