Eric Reguly has an extensive piece on the shifting fortunes of the fortunate in today’s Globe and Mail:

Mr. Prokhorov loves basketball and played well. He made almost half of his foul shots and graciously avoided using his height and skills to deprive his shorter, chunkier teammates of ball time. While he didn’t grin constantly like Mr. Pippen, he clearly enjoyed himself.

It’s been many months since most of the other oligarchs have been able to relax like Mr. Prokhorov did on the basketball court. In a January interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the oligarch who controls Russia’s ailing Sistema group of construction, telecoms and fashion businesses, said the financial crisis could eliminate as many as 40 per cent of the oligarchs.

“Most of the wealth of the oligarchs is in their companies, not with them personally,” said a senior executive at one of Russia’s leading steel companies. “When the companies lose, they lose.” (…)