Few people outside of Russia know much about Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, but their names came to the fore this week when Arkady was added to the EU sanctions list. They are friends of Putin's who made their first money selling pipes to Gazprom. Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny noted in his blog this month that compared to Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, they live in phenomenal luxury. Russian journalist Yulia Latynina argues that a palace like that of the Rotenbergs is a testament to their membership in a social system that has nothing to do with capitalism. What she apparently had in mind was a form of feudal kleptocracy. Petr Kellner, who according to Forbes is twice as wealthy as Arkady and Boris Rotenberg combined, lives in comparative squalor. (See here and here.) Czech oligarchs might not be capitalists either, by Latynina's definition, but at least they don't rub it in so much.