Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Rich Russians are losing interest in Swiss bank accounts and the U.S. dollar, opting instead to invest more rubles at home, where risk and potential gains are higher, Troika Dialog President Pavel Teplukhin said.

The global crisis dispelled the notion that some assets can be safe havens for investors, increasing the relative allure of ruble holdings, said Teplukhin, who also runs the asset management arm of Russia’s oldest investment bank.

“Their mentality is changing,” Teplukhin said of Troika Asset Management’s 1,000 millionaire clients, in an interview in Moscow. “They no longer consider Switzerland a safe place, the U.S. dollar a safe investment, or real estate as risk-free.”

Wealthy Russians are undeterred by the record 58 percent collapse of the Micex stock index and 34 percent decline of the ruble against the dollar in the six months through January, Teplukhin said. The country’s 100 richest people lost $380 billion last year, according to Forbes Russia, which cut its list of billionaires to 32 this year from 110 in 2008.

“Forget about stocks and bonds, that’s old fashioned,” Teplukhin said Sept. 4. Russians want “all classes of assets, of risk, of currencies,” he said. “Clients will be picking their investments like bricks in a new Lego set.”

Many Russians built their fortunes from scratch after the Soviet Union disbanded in 1991 and have a big appetite for risk, Teplukhin said. They no longer want to be limited to buying and selling securities, though there’s still money to be made in those markets, he said.

Stock Gains

The Micex Index of 30 stocks has gained 87 percent this year, the fourth-best performance of major indexes tracked by Bloomberg. Shares on the Micex trade at about 11.5 times profits, up from 3.7 at the start of year and less than the MSCI Emerging Markets index’s 19, Bloomberg data show. The benchmark indexes in China, Brazil and India trade near 34, 24 and 20 times earnings, respectively.

“Our clients are individuals who created their wealth themselves over the last 10 years or so,” Teplukhin said. “For them, Russia risk is acceptable. It is properly priced.”

One of the most popular money-making strategies lately has been ruble arbitrage, he said. The ruble’s 30-day volatility reached a record 21.33 percent in annualized terms in February against the dollar, according to Bloomberg data. That compares with a 30-day volatility of 12.93 percent as of Sept. 9.

Prokhorov, Deripaska

“The Russian ruble is no longer scary,” Teplukhin said. “Now, instead of avoiding the ruble, you’re going to play with it, try to make money, whether it’s interest rates or swaps or you name it.”

Russia lifted restrictions on capital movements in 2006 helping investors move cash more freely between currencies and markets. The ease of movement cut reliance on bank accounts outside the country, such as in Switzerland, the destination of choice for Russia’s richest businessmen in the 1990s.

Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who bought 50 percent of Troika rival Renaissance Capital last year, said in July he was focused on buying domestic companies that could later expand globally. Another billionaire, Oleg Deripaska, whose assets include a majority stake in aluminum producer United Co. Rusal, said last week the global crisis has made Russia more attractive for acquisitions than most other countries.

The trouble banks in Switzerland are having has contributed to the increased interest rich Russians are showing in ruble investments, Teplukhin said.

Swiss Secrecy

Banks in Switzerland are trying to fend off U.S. attempts to prize open their secrecy after American tax authorities started an investigation into tax evasion by customers of UBS AG. Zurich-based UBS admitted in February to participating “in a scheme to defraud the U.S.” and agreed to pay $780 million and disclose the names of more than 250 clients.

“Most Swiss private banking clients inherited their wealth from their parents and their main idea is to keep this wealth and pass it on to the next generation,” Teplukhin said.

Russian millionaires, by contrast, are younger, generally between 35 and 45 years old “and used to risk,” he said. “For them, money is a symbol of recent achievements. They don’t have this legacy of passing wealth onto the next generation. They say: ‘We can still make more.’”

To contact the reporter on this story: Yuriy Humber in Moscow at yhumber@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 10, 2009 16:00 EDT