Despite the ongoing global financial crisis Russian billionaires are buying up coastal Montenegro, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
In the past few years, the Montenegrin coast has become a fashionable alternative to the south of France and coastal Turkey for wealthy Russians, the paper said.
Suitcases of cash and Russian-owned yachts keep arriving in the idyllic town of Budva on the Adriatic, which has helped Montenegro earn the nickname Moscow-on-the-Sea.
Among the biggest investors is the Russian developer Vyentseslav Leibman, a young millionaire who is investing USD 310 million in an exclusive resort wich will feature a 27-floor modernist hotel, luxury seaside villas, docks for the boats and a water park for children.
More than half of luxury condominiums in a new complex, which sell for more than USD 10,400 per square foot, has already been sold to executives of giant Russian companies like Gazprom, LUKoil and VTB who paid upfront and in cash, the paper said.
"Thanks in large part to wealthy Russians, Montenegro has received more foreign investment per capita than any other country in Europe," the paper said.