Is Putin a billionaire?

How rich is Vladimir Putin? It is an easy question to answer formally by looking at Mr Putin's declaration of assets as a candidate in this month's parliamentary elections (writes Tony Halpin, Moscow Correspondent of The Times).

This showed that he earned £40,000 last year and had £74,000 in savings as well as two vintage Volga cars, an apartment in St Petersburg inherited from his parents and 230 shares in a local bank, worth about £400.
Informally, however, some staggering numbers are circulating as gossip among political analysts in Russia.