Snob

In a display of modesty and taste, the Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is planning on setting up a magazine, website and TV station called Snob, dedicated entirely to snobs. Prokhorov is the ranked as the 24th richest person in the world, according to the Forbes Rich List, making his money in nickel and gold, owning part of the world’s biggest nickel and gold producing companies

To the Russians, a snob is someone who is a “self-made man”, who has gained a right to snobbishness (exaggerated respect for high social position or wealth and looking down on those regarded as socially inferior). Apparently, while boasting about your wealth if you have inherited it, is unpleasant, boasting about it when you have made it yourself is justified, if still not very nice!

Thanks to the rising prices in commodity and energy prices, certain people in Russia have become very rich, where these super-rich hold wild parties fuelled by champagne and caviar, so it only seems like a natural progression to have something like the “Snob” venture, which focuses on lifestyle, business news and travel. The magazine will launch this summer with the cable channel hot on its heels.