There's a lot of it about, particularly in Russia.

Forbes says there are now 110 dollar billionaires in Russia, with more in Moscow than in any other city in the world. Only America has more. And there are many multimillionaires.

Rich Russian parents send their children to English boarding schools, but not until they've finished their early education at Mes, the elite Moscow Economic School. Abramovich's children went to school here. So did Khodorkovsky's - he was once Russia's richest man but now languishes in jail. The children of Pyotr Aven, one of Russia’s first oligarch bankers, now in England, are former pupils. Oleg Deripaska, 40, is Russia’s richest man – worth about £14 billion - and he has a child at Mes.

Entry costs £25,000, although parents are said to pay far more to get their child in. Average yearly fees are around £7,000 – a fraction of what it later costs to send them to Britain.

The children arrive in Porsche Cayennes, Maseratis, BMWs, 4WDs and so on, accompanied by tough looking security men armed with guns. The kids are adorned with designer clothes and jewelled watches, with credit cards, i-phones, mobiles, nannies, bodyguards and bulletproof cars.

The place to live is off Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Shosse, a road that snakes westwards out of Moscow through forests of silver birches and pines. Known as Rublyovka, the area is Moscow’s Beverly Hills, home to the gated compounds of oligarchs, government ministers, Kremlin officials, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his successor, Dmitry Medvedev. Along the road, stretches of forest are boxed in behind 16ft-high metal fences surveilled by CCTV cameras and patrolled day and night by private security guards.

Near by is Barvikha Luxury Village, an elite shopping complex. Lamborghini and Ferrari have a showroom here. The Bentley dealership sells a car a day. Gucci, Prada and Armani are here, as is Dolce & Gabbana, and Brioni, the Italian fashion house whose custom-tailored suits can cost up to £15,000, and Bottega Veneta, where you can buy a handbag for £10,000.

The rich ski in Courchevel and swim off yachts in Sardinia and St Tropez.

16 years after the collapse of communism, it's amazing what a little touch of captialism can do.