Coming in at around $86 billion, Bill Gates has ridden his Microsoft MSFT, -1.24% fortune straight to the top of the Forbes list of the world’s richest men. Then again, the business magazine doesn’t take into account the world leaders and “dictators who derive their fortunes entirely as a result of their position of power.”

If it did, there’d likely be a new top dog, according to reports that revisited the idea that Vladimir Putin’s net worth, virtually impossible to measure, tops $200 billion.