Eighty billionaires come to Davos to defend their right to become richer

Eighty dollar billionaires visited the Davos forum, eight of them came from Russia. The largest number of wealthy people arrived from the U.S.

The national delegation of the United states of America consisted of 20 people, headed by Bill Gates. One of the topics of the forum is the struggle against income inequality and poverty.

Russia's richest representative is Alisher Usmanov, whose fortune is evaluated at 19.6 billion dollars. Compared with last year's Davos Forum, billionaires have become richer. Over the past year, the overall fortune of 300 individuals rated as billionaires grew by 524 billion dollars (17 %) and now stands at 3.6 trillion dollars.

Such a number of billionaires in Davos and their plans to increase their wealth even more has raised questions among the general public. It is wealthiest citizens who make the most of the GDP growth that has been gaining momentum recently. One percent of richest Americans received 95 percent of all economic benefits from the recovery of the U.S. economy in 2009-2012. 

"It is staggering that in the 21st century, half of the world's population - that's three and a half billion people - own no more than a tiny elite whose numbers could all fit comfortably on a double-decker bus," the head of Oxfam human rights organization Winnie Byanima said.