Large inheritances can kill heirs, Russian...

"A million [dollars] handed over from inheritance helps a person to receive a good education, find employment without haste and find himself. A transferred billion [dollars] kills him and deprives him of the sense of life," Potanin said.

In an interview with The Financial Times published on Monday, Potanin whose wealth is estimated at $2.1 billion, said he planned to transfer his entire fortune to a special fund rather than pass it on to his children.

Potanin, who has a daughter and two sons, said, however, he had not made up his mind yet on specific charitable projects.

"The money-earning goal has changed for me. Now this is charity. I am still to decide, in which form and to which organization my capital will be transferred," he said.

Potanin, who made his fortune during the loans-for-shares auctions in the mid-1990s when Russia"s cash-strapped government sold the country"s biggest industrial assets for a song, was one of the first Russian oligarchs

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