Katia Verber, who Marie Claire calls the "Paris Hilton of Russia," certainly doesn’t have many woes. The daugher of Alla Verber, the vice president of Russia’s biggest luxury retailer, Mercury, which includes brands like Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Prada, seems immune to the international economic crisis. Just like the American Hilton, who recently bought herself a pink Bentley for Christmas, Verber drives around in a gold Bentley. So, as Russia’s rubble falls further, Verber remains untouched. Here’s an excerpt from the article that will be published in the magazine’s February issue:

On her biggest problems:

[Her] It car — her mother’s chauffeured gold Bentley — has just broken down. "I’m so stressed!" sighs the feathery voice on the other end of the line when I call to check in. "I’ll be there in 20!" I can’t help but ask: If you shell out $250,000 for a car, it should work, right? "Oh, no. No, no, no," she says in crisp English, with the patience of a kindergarten teacher. "Bentleys break down all the time." Before I can respond, her $7,000 luxury titanium Vertu cell phone is beep-beep-beeping. Loudly. "Ugh, I hate this ring," she says, raking through the contents of her studded Balenciaga bag with both hands. "It lets everyone know you have a Vertu. It’s so embarrassing!"

On her career:

Katia works as a buyer at Mercury, but she spends much of her time posing for Russian glossies and deciding what party invitations to accept.

On Russia’s economy:

Moscow still boasts 73 billionaires (compared with New York’s 70), and the number of Russian millionaires shot up last year to 136,000. But the gap between the rich and poor is growing, too: The average wage is still a measly 16,253 rubles, or $686 a month, and 18.9 million Russians subsist below the poverty line on monthly wages averaging less than $170.

On Verber’s view of the economy:

There are two Russias, as Katia says: One hobbles along, while the other races forward, spending its oil cash with the sort of careless abandon that you could find only in a country where toilet paper was once considered a luxury good.

Well said. A true reflection of the big divide among the classes.