DELUXE
PEOPLE
BETTER THAN SWAN LAKE WEALTHY RUSSIANS LOVE MALLORCA – BUSINESS WOMAN AND BEAUTY QUEEN OLGA ZUBOVA HAS MADE THE ISLAND HER HOME allorca’s purveyors of luxury real estate have long been courting this attractive clientele. Some years ago, for example, Matthias Kühn built villas worth 20, 30, and 50 million euros, and still today he would be happy to sell the finca belonging to Boris Becker to a Russian tennis fan. Successive Balearic Island Governments of differing political hues, too, have cultivated Russian visitors. In 2004, a delegation of the conservative People’s Party flew to Moscow, and a year ago the Socialists signed a cooperation agreement there. Until now, the new visitors have arrived only in small numbers – a barely perceptible minority compared, for example, to the 3.7 million German tourists who visit the Island every year. However, a new trend is emerging: in addition to hotel guests, an increasing number of celebrities and the super-rich are showing their loyalty to the Island. Roman Abramovich and his yacht Le Grand Bleu were to be seen for years moored off Es Trenc beach. And now with the first direct flights between Moscow and Palma provided by the Russian airline S7, a partner of Air Berlin Mallorca will also become a short break holiday
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destination for wealthy Muscovites. Yacht charter companies are experiencing this, too. “The number of enquiries we receive from Russia is increasing year by year,” says Nick Whale of Nick Whale Marine, Puerto Portals. “Russian clients are spontaneous, they book at the last minute and they are looking for top-end yachts.” More and more Russians are discovering Mallorca as a base for themselves and their families. One of these is Olga Zubova, who was born in Ukraine and has been living on the Island since 2009. “The light, the space, the endless blue sea and the green mountains beyond,” enthuses the mother-of-two. She and her husband, a Moscow real estate entrepreneur, have lived in the past in Cannes and have spent a lot of time in the USA – and yet, “I love Moscow, where both my sons were born, but Mallorca is now our home.” Zubova had other options. The former Miss Black Sea has behind her a long career as a model and business woman. Her biography reads like Swan Lake without Von Rothbart: it goes all the way from Odessa to Moscow for photoshoots, from beauty pageants to haute couture. She meets her future husband at a wedding fashion show. He was then working as an events manager and takes her with him to concerts by international pop stars. The girl
from the Black Sea models luxury labels from Armani through to Versace, works in television and experiences the excitement of life in Moscow during the period of upheaval at the end of the cold war. In 1998 there follows a picture book wedding in Las Vegas and, as if this is not enough, she surprises her husband by being crowned ‘Bride of the Year’. “25 brides were short listed out of 5,000,” she recalls. “My husband was completely taken by surprise when he saw all these girls in wedding dresses – and then I went on to win.” The prize was a trip to Paris, “a second honeymoon”. And now Mallorca? “The Island is a safer place to live than Moscow, and the climate is better.” It provides the perfect conditions for their children to grow up happily. Even though she has invested in real estate in Russia, Zubova has found in Mallorca the equilibrium she needs to look after both her family and her businesses. “Mallorca today offers life in a stimulating multi-national society,” she says. “And that is something unique. TranslaTion: C.Moody
Olga´s sons grow up between Moscow and Mallorca as Alexey Zubov works in Russia