Who You Calling an Oligarch?

On Nov. 14 a glittering international crowd turned out at Cipriani 42nd Street, a Manhattan event space with vaulted ceilings and Italian Renaissance decor. Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank executives mingled with officials from Moscow city government and the Russian Duma, all against a Mozart musical background. The invitation mentioned that United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon sent his regrets—he was attending a critical meeting in Asia and could not be there.

The guests had ostensibly gathered to applaud the winners of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, who received prizes of up to $25,000 for research on esoteric subjects such as black holes and particle physics. But the evening was also a tribute to the underwriter of the awards, a thick-necked, Ukrainian-born businessman named Leonard Blavatnik who arrived late in a stylishly cut gray suit. He spent most of the ceremony hovering behind the dais, smiling as award winners offered emotional thanks for his largesse. At one point he acknowledged his family in the audience: “My mother and my mother-in-law are here tonight,” he said.