oligarch

''They name oligarchs, billionaires as governors of eastern regions,'' Putin said during a news conference earlier this week.

The unexpected move drew instant criticism from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hit out at one of the oligarchs, Ukraine's third-richest man, Ihor Kolomoisky.

When [v.sub.1] gradually increases, Figure 8 is the track figure of each retailer's profit, and Figure 9 is the average profit track figure of the three oligarchs. When [[alpha].sub.1] gradually increases, the track of each retailer's profit is showed in Figure 10, and the average profit track of the three oligarchs is showed in Figure 11.

Old guard lurks behind the scenes Latvia's so-called three oligarchs - Ventspils Mayor Aivars Lembergs, ex-Prime Minister Andris Skele and former Cabinet minister and Saeima member Slesers had a meeting on March 26 in the office building at 68 Dzirnavu Street in Riga, where the Skeles' consulting firm Uznemumu Vadiba un Konsultacijas is located.

Journalist Mark Hollingsworth and TV producer Stewart Lansley have painstakingly chronicled the mysterious, intriguing and opulent lives of the Oligarchs, most of whom made their fortunes from oil, gas and precious metals under the benevolent protection of Boris Yeltsin.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a favourite of the country's presidential elections scheduled for 17 January, has promised to rein in the "oligarchs" and integrate Ukraine into the EU.

In fact, "the Russians are coming" has a quite different ring to it now as perusal of a book by an old mate of mine, Londongrad: From Russia With Cash - The Inside Story Of The Oligarchs (HarperCollins by Mark Hollingsworth and Stewart Lansley), reveals.

Melamid's paintings were recently exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit in an exhibit called Holy Hip-Hop, and he continues to churn them out, along with two concurrent series of portraits, one of various Vatican figures, and a new set of Russian oligarchs and oil barons.

Putin's "dictatorship of the law" has tackled the "criminal state" which had developed in Russia and the oligarchs, mostly Jewish men who had accumulated vast fortunes out of state assets sold for a song, including major oil producing firms.

It is a tale of the making of rich oligarchs in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and of the mafia's role in these reforms.

But, despite his emphasis on maintaining stability, Putin offered no comfort to the country's business oligarchs. He declined to rule out a repeat of the assault on Yukos - the oil company which has seen its main assets seized by the state and its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, jailed on tax and fraud charges.

Unfortunately for Russia, that lever has not always been used wisely or productively by any of Putin's predecessors, the oligarchs, or Putin himself.

In his reporting and his book, Godfather of the Kremlin: The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism, a biography of now-exiled billionaire oligarch Boris Berezovsky, he documented in relentless detail how a handful of oligarchs were looting Russia's national wealth.