Rich Russians Flee As Country Moves Toward Recession

Like their Chinese counterparts who snapped up properties in London, New York, Sydney and other global cities when Beijing imposed cooling measures on its red-hot real estate market, uber rich Russians are abandoning ship.

Data from the United Kingdom's Home Office showed a 69 percent increase in number of Russian applicants in 2014 for fast-track visas granted to foreigners who would invest at least 2 million pound in the country.

YouTube/UKRAINE TODAY

That translates into 162 visas granted during the first three quarters of 2014, which is 66 more visas compared to the number of visas for the same period the previous year.

Notably, very wealthy Russians began to leave their motherland when the west started the economic sanctions after March for Russia incursion in Ukraine.

The conditions of the Tier 1 Investor Visa that rich Russians apply for include maximum stay in UK of three years and four months and the investment is not purchase of property. Upon finishing their second year, these investors could apply for permanent resident visa if they would invest further another 10 million pound. Those who would invest 5 million more would have to wait for one more year before they could apply for permanent resident visa.

With the recent devaluation of the rouble, rich Russians also stopped booking holiday vacations and inquiring about the purchase of London properties, observed Bloomberg.

YouTube/UKRAINE TODAY

For Russians who can't afford to invest overseas, they spent time instead joking about their currency, says Buzzfeed.

Their humorous ways of dealing with the lesser buying power of their money include designing a mock paper note that plays on Putin's meddling in east Ukraine, wearing "I believe in the rouble" T-shirts, using the local currency as toilet paper and proposing a new design on the rouble currency symbol to reflect its falling value or comparing to a flaccid male genital.