That poses a quandary for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"On the one hand, he has to be responsive to public anger over the oligarchs," Goldman said. "On the other, he must realize the Yukos affair has gotten out of hand, and hurt the economy and his standing in the international investment community."
Putin aims to lift the tide for everyone by doubling Russia's gross domestic product, now at US$582 billion, by 2012, a target date that has shifted several times, depending on the country's progress. To some extent, the strategy is working. Last year's poverty level of 17.8 percent was down from 20.6 percent in 2003 and from more than 24 percent in 2002.
But many specialists say a crucial piece is missing in Russia's riches-and-rags economy.
"The presence of dozens of billionaires, however eye-catching, is of less moment than the absence of millions of small and medium businesses," Stephen Kotkin, director of Princeton University's Russian studies program, said in an e-mail interview. Russia's middle class still consists mostly of salaried workers for the state or for large corporations, rather than a broad group of property owners, he said.
The Kremlin has noticed. "The government and the regional authorities have failed to create conditions for small and medium-sized business to flourish," Putin said on state-run television in March.
Even some Russian billionaires say they see problems with the country's wealth gap.
"It's a dubious privilege," Alexander Lebedev said of making the latest Forbes list with a net worth of US$1.6 billion. "The general attitude here in Russia to people who have wealth is not very positive. It's partly explained by the attitude of the rich, not paying in kind to the population of their country."
Lebedev, the former president of the National Reserve Bank, one of Russia's biggest private banks, also said, "It's not very ethical if it is an unlawful source of wealth."
Lebedev, now a member of Russia's Parliament, is trying to persuade state television to develop a reality show that would detail the tribulations of small-business owners. Entrepreneurs would be trailed by hidden cameras ready to reveal any encounter with corrupt bureaucrats or police and endless licensing agencies and other forms of red tape.
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