You have to put it into context.
Back in the day, a decent apartment in town and a modest datcha in the country, both with West German appliances, a chauffeur-driven ZiL and maybe a summer holiday at a nice Crimean beach was then what a couple of mansions, private jets and a superyacht are now.
After the soviet system crumbled, there was
a) more, much more to go around and
b) what went around suddenly was hard currency.1)
The first wave of oligarchs all made their riches by buying mineral resources – oil, gas, precious metals - at state-sanctioned prices for roubles (maybe worth the paper they were printed on) and selling them abroad for hard cash.
1) As opposed to currencies international banks avoided wherever they could, domestic products of poor quality and COMECON barter vouchers.
