If you have been sickened by media mentions of Lord Mandelson's £2.4 million townhouse and £1 million European Union pay-off, consider that his wealth is nothing compared to the fortunes of really wealthy politicians. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger's hundreds of millions do not make our list...
1 Suleiman Kerimov - $17.5 billion
The far-right Russian senator from Dagestan struck it rich as a stakeholder in Gazprom, Russia's gas export company, and Sberbank, Eastern Europe's largest bank. Kerimov, 42, made news in 2006 when he was seriously injured after losing control of his Ferrari on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. His passenger, Playboy covergirl Tina Kandelaki, suffered minor injuries
2 Michael Bloomberg - $11.5 billion
The 66-year-old independent mayor of New York City made his billions from sales of stockmarket-tracking systems and later the Bloomberg newswire and related services after he was fired from Salomon Brothers, the investment bank, with a $10 million severance package in 1981. He has donated more than $1.4 billion to good causes and draws $1 a year for his work as mayor
3 Serge Dassault - $9.9 billion
The French aviation mogul is a member of Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, a senator, and mayor of Corbeil-Essonnes in Paris. He inherited Groupe Dassault from his father Marcel, who was deported to Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944 for his refusal to collaborate with the Nazis. In 1998, Dassault Jr. was given a two-year suspended sentence for corruption in the Agusta scandal
4 Silvio Berlusconi - $9.4 billion
Italy's larger-than-life prime minister (pictured, above) is weathering the crunch well - reportedly purchasing a 30-room neo-classical villa on Lake Maggiore and doubling the size of his Villa San Martino outside Milan. The super-magnate, who owns much of the country's media and AC Milan football club, laid the foundations of his fortune as a property developer during the late 1960s
5 Aburizal Bakri - $9.2 billion
The chief welfare minister of Indonesia inherited control of the vast Bakrie Group from his father, a partisan of Suharto. He ran into controversy in 2006 when drilling by a Bakrie-controlled oil and gas outfit allegedly triggered a mudslide which displaced thousands. He has been branded the "national avatar of government by conflict of interest" in the Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus
6 Rinat Akhmetov - $7.3 billion
A member of parliament for Ukraine's opposition, Rinat Akhmetov is also his country's wealthiest tycoon, with a massive coal and steel empire. Last year he founded the Foundation for Effective Governance to support economic development in Ukraine, counting Shimon Peres, the Nobel Laureate, and Hernando de Soto, the Peruvian economist, among speakers at its launch
7 Andrei Molchanov - $4 billion
The 37-year-old construction baron is a member of Russia's upper house and the adopted son of Yury Molchanov, deputy governor of St Petersburg - himself a former university colleague of Vladimir Putin. In 2005, Molchanov Jr.'s company LSR Group controversially demolished a fine 18th century barracks in St Petersburg, after it was quietly de-listed by the city authorities
8 Gleb Fetisov - $3.9 billion
The third Russian senator on our list built his fortune trading commodities in the vast Alfa Group and remains a stakeholder in Altimo, Alfa's telcoms holding company. The latter is set for "aggressive" expansion in developing markets in Asia, such as Iran and Afghanistan. Holding a doctorate in economics from Moscow State University, Fetisov maintains a low media profile
9 Kostyantin Zhevago - $3.4 billion
A member of Ukraine's parliament and aide to prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the 34-year-old oligarch began his career as finance director of the bank Finance & Credit at 19. He has since acquired a control of the latter's holding company and plans to take the bank public by 2010. Last week, Zhevago was forced to sell 20 per cent of his mining venture Ferrexpo to clear a loan from JP Morgan
10 Saad Hariri - $3.3 billion
The son and political heir of assassinated Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri leads the Future Movementultra-tight security and is said to enjoy Cuban cigars and scuba diving parliamentary majority in Beirut and heads Saudi Oger, the family's Riyadh-based construction, banking and telecoms empire. The graduate of Georgetown University in Washington DC lives amid
EXTRA: Three super-rich politicians who don't make the list...
Arnold Schwarzenegger - $200 million-plus
Hank Paulson - $700 million-plus
John Kerry - $230 million-plus
媒體報道說,曼德爾森男爵擁有價值240萬英鎊的住宅、并且還從歐盟領取1百萬英鎊的薪水。如果你覺得這些財富已經高得驚人,那就看看這些真正富有的政治家吧,和他們相比男爵的財產簡直不值一提,就連阿諾德·施瓦辛格這樣財產上億的富豪也未能躋身其列……
1蘇萊曼·克里莫夫(Suleiman Kerimov) - 175億美元
來自達吉斯坦的極右翼議員,名下的財富包括在俄羅斯天然氣工業股份公司和俄羅斯國有儲蓄銀行擁有的股份,這兩家企業分別是俄羅斯最大的天然氣出口公司和東歐最大的銀行。克里莫夫今年42歲,在2006年的一次車禍中嚴重受傷以后成為新聞人物,當時他在尼斯的海邊林蔭大道上駕駛法拉利車失控,同車的《花花公子》封面女郎蒂娜· 坎德拉奇受了輕傷。
2邁克爾·布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg) - 115億美元
現年66歲的無黨派人士、紐約市市長。1981年他被投資銀行所羅門兄弟公司解職,得到了1億美元的解雇補償費,隨后,他先是出售股票市場追蹤分析系統,后來又通過出售博彭新聞專線及相關服務成為億萬富翁。他向社會公益事業累計捐贈14億美元,但是在擔任市長期間,每年只領取1美元的工資。
3塞日爾·達索(Serge Dassault) - 99億美元
法國航空業巨頭、尼古拉斯·薩科齊領導的法國人民運動聯盟黨議員、巴黎科爾貝-埃松市市長。他從父親馬賽爾手里繼承了達索集團。馬賽爾曾因為拒絕與納粹合作,1944年被關進布痕瓦爾德集中營,而他的兒子卻因為卷入阿科斯塔丑聞,在1998年被判兩年徒型,緩期執行。
4西爾維奧·貝盧斯科尼(Silvio Berlusconi) - 94億美元
信貸危機對意大利富有傳奇色彩的總理(題頭照片)影響甚微:傳聞說他在馬焦雷湖畔新近購買了一套有30個房間的新現實主義別墅,而且把他在米蘭郊外的圣馬丁諾別墅擴大了一倍。意大利媒體業的絕大部分都在這位超級富豪名下,包括AC米蘭足球俱樂部。他是從二十世紀六十年代晚期嶄露頭角,積累起上述財富。
5阿布里扎爾·巴克利(Aburizal BAKRIE)- 92億美元
印度尼西亞的福利部長,父親是蘇哈托的強硬支持者。他從父親手中繼承了規模宏大的巴克利集團,2006年因石油天然氣開采引發的泥石流導致數千人被迫重新安置,引發了爭論,并被《亞太期刊:焦點日本》列為“政府違背公眾利益行為的國家形象代言人”。
6 雷納托·阿克梅托夫(Rinat Akhmetov) - 73億美元
烏克蘭反對黨議員、全烏克蘭最富有的企業界巨頭、掌握著實力雄厚的煤炭、鋼鐵帝國。去年他建立起“有效管理基金”支持烏克蘭的經濟發展。在基金成立儀式上,諾貝爾獎獲得者希蒙·佩雷斯、秘魯經濟學家赫爾南多·德·索托都到場發表了講話。
7 安德烈·莫恰諾夫(Andrei Molchanov) - 40億美元
37歲的建筑業巨子,俄羅斯上議院議員,是圣彼得堡市副市長尤里·莫恰諾夫的養子。安德烈本人還是弗拉基米爾·普京的大學同學。2005年,小莫恰諾夫的公司LSR集團不顧反對,拆毀了一座18世紀具有代表性的部隊營房,該營房位于圣彼得堡。從那以后,安德烈就悄然遠離了該市的權力機構。
8 格列博·費迪索夫(Gleb Fetisov) - 39億美元
名單上的第三位俄羅斯議員、名下的阿爾法集團規模巨大,從事日用品銷售,另外他還是阿爾法電信的控股公司阿爾基莫(Altimo)的股東。后者在亞洲國家市場,如伊朗和阿富汗的業務擴展“勢頭兇猛”。費迪索夫獲得過莫斯科州立大學的博士學位,一直保持著不引人注目的媒體形象。
9 科斯特揚丁·薩維果(Kostyantin Zhevago) - 34億美元
烏克蘭議員、尤利婭·季莫申科總理的助手,現年34歲,寡頭政治的支持者。從19歲擔任金融信貸銀行的財務經理開始,他逐漸取得了該銀行的控股權,并計劃在2010年將該行上市。上個星期,薩維果被迫出售他擁有的Ferrexpo股份的20%,以償還JP摩根的貸款。
10薩阿德·哈里里(Saad Hariri)- 33億美元
被刺殺的黎巴嫩前總理拉菲克·哈里里的兒子、繼任人,他領導的未來運動在貝魯特議會占據多數席位,同時他也是位于利雅德的家族企業Saudi Oger的領導人,該企業在銀行和電信業占據龐大份額。薩阿德畢業于華盛頓特區喬治敦大學,主張在生活中嚴格保證安全,據說酷愛古巴雪茄和斯庫巴潛水(呼吸器潛水)。
另外,還有三位財產過人的政治家未能進入前十名……
阿諾德·施瓦辛格 - 超過2億美元
漢克·保爾森(Hank Paulson) – 超過7億美元
約翰·克里(John Kerry) – 超過2.30億美元