Celebrating the New Year the Russian way

We are fast approaching the time for all the exciting head of state New Year´s speeches. Russia´s outgoing president Medvedev was the first to deliver his speech. The speech has been very well received in Russia, with almost 1 million hits within 24 hours of appearing on the Internet.

The big question is now, whether the tiny president will Join Roman Abramovich and his 300 guests for the traditional New Year´s party on the Caribbean island of St Barts. The background of Medvedev´s speech suggests that he may already be there.

This year Roman Abramovich, the billionaire Russian oligarch, plans to eclipse his previous New Year's Eve celebrations by spending more than £5 million on his 300 guests.

Rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers will play at the exclusive event, held at the Chelsea football club owner's £58 million estate on the Caribbean island of St Barts.

The estate near Gouverneur beach was previously owned by US banking tycoons the Rockefellers and has a number of swimming pools, pavilions and beach bungalows.

Guests have been told to wear "island chic" at the event, which will run from 10pm until 4am, with partygoers retiring to a fleet of super-yachts in the marina at the end of the evening.

Last year, Demi Moore, Rosie Huntington-Whitely, Stephanie Seymour, Ellen DeGeneres and Star Wars creator George Lucas were among dozens of famous names on the invitation list.

Read the entire article here

PS

One would hope that Gerge Lucas is on Abramovich´s guest list also this new year´s eve, because it could be the last New Year´s Eve party for him:

"George Lucas sits down and seriously proceeds to talk for around 25 minutes about how he thinks the world is gonna end in the year 2012, like, for real. He thinks it.