Putin humiliates oligarch Derispaska

It keeps getting worse for Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch who the British public first heard about when he invited Peter Mandelson and George Osborne aboard his yacht last summer. Until last year Deripaska, an aluminium magnate, was Russia’s richest man. But having seen his fortune dwindle from some £17 billion to around £2 billion, yesterday Deripaska was humiliated in front of his factory staff, and by no less a visitor than Vladimir Putin.

The Russian prime minister, wary of the potential social unrest that his country's faltering economy could cause, wanted to show his contempt for the super-rich and his concern for the workers of Pikalevo, a factory town where residents have been protesting over job cuts and unpaid wages. One blockade they organised had caused a 250-mile traffic tailback.

So Putin ordered Deripaska, who is known for his uncompromising loyalty to the Kremlin, to take him round a cement plant that he owned in the town, and where workers were still awaiting their February paycheck.

At one stage, he started growling at the oligarch and the owners of two smaller factories. "Why has your factory been so neglected?" he asked, "they've turned it into a rubbish dump. Why was everyone running around like cockroaches before my arrival? Why was no one capable of taking decisions?" As the impassioned rant, which was broadcast on state television, continued Deripaska could only look at the floor.

"You made thousands of people hostages to your ambitions, to your unprofessionalism, and, maybe, simply to your greed," Putin announced. "Where is business's social responsibility? It's absolutely unacceptable." ·