Russian Business Woman Officially Richer Than Oprah Winfrey

Elena Baturina, a Russian entrepreneur and the wife of Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, has been listed among three richest women in the world according to Forbes magazine, RIA Novosti reports.

Photo: Russian Business Woman Officially Richer Than Oprah Winfrey

The list is topped by Wu Yajun of China, who made her $3.9 billion on real estate business. The second position is taken by Rosalia Mera, a co-founder of Zara clothing company with $3.5 billion.

No.3 belongs to Elena Baturina of Russia. The Russian business lady has left behind such world-known personas as Oprah Winfrey with her $2.4 billion, Doris Fisher, the owner of Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic empire, Giuliana Benetton, the owner of Benetton brand with $2.1 billion and world’s richest female writer J.K. Rowling, who made over $1 billion on her world famous Harry Potter novels.

Baturina’s fortune was evaluated at $2.9 billion. She started her career as a worker at a factory and then founded her own companies – Inteko and Patriot. Baturina comes third on the list of only 14 women who earned billion-dollar fortunes. Forbes’s club of billionaires counts 1,011 billionaires in total.

Nearly a half of Forbes’s list of self-made women is represented by Asian business ladies, presumably Chinese women. For the time being, only one lady has decided to express her ambitions in politics – Meg Whitman – a candidate for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s position as the governor of California. She has already spent $70 million of her $1.3-billion fortune on her election campaign.