But yesterday Russia's prime minister Vladimir Putin made a rather more modest declaration of his wealth - owning up to an income last year of a paltry £100,000, including his KGB pension.
His assets included a 1,500 square metre plot of land and "a stake in a garage cooperative equivalent to one car seat".
Putin's declaration follows an initiative by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to combat the country's ubiquitous corruption. Under a new law passed last December, all senior government officials now have to give annual declarations of their income, together with that of their spouses and under-age children.
© Dmitry Astakhov/EPAPutin's assets included a 1,500 square metre plot of land.
The new legislation does not force Russian bureaucrats to disclose the income of grown-up family members or relatives. No agency has been tasked with establishing whether annual declarations are actually true.
Investigators point out that most wealthy Russian officials hide their real incomes via a network of offshore accounts, often in Switzerland or Liechtenstein.
Last year, the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International said Russia had slid down its annual corruption index and was now on a par with Kenya and Bangladesh, with a rating of just 2.1 out of 10
What a pension. Many normals in Russia can hardly earn their daily nutritional intake and thus resort to alcoholism to treat their sorrow and misery. And look at this charming, glamorous and charsmatic man!!! Must have really proven himself to the PTB, no??? Would anyone allow him to take that position of power otherwise???