Russia’s growing wealth gap – BBC News

Late night Friday and the Ts lounge bar is well into its relaunch. This is downtown St Petersburg off the main drag of Nevski Prospekt.

The crowd are a mix of the city’s glitterati pulled in, willingly one imagines, to give it the stamp of exclusivity – artists, fashion designers, businesswomen, and the ebullient popstar Tatyana Bulanova.

There’s a fashion show thrown in too. This has to be Russia – the 6ft models sashaying between the guests are decked out in furs.

In London or New York you wear fur at the risk of being vilified by animal rights campaigners.

Here, with a beaver, sable or mink over your shoulder, you’ve got style, respect and wealth.

But the wealthy in Russia represent just a thin layer at the top of a society that still shows some remarkable similarities to the one that was cast off 20 years ago with the collapse of communism.

Overall wealth has certainly grown over the last two decades. But within that growth there are harsh differences.

The bottom 40%, who live in the sprawling Soviet-era suburbs, are being paid less in real terms than they were in 1991, while only the top 20% have seen their incomes more than double.