I came across this on reddit, & am currently reading it over morning coffee, but thought I'd share it here due to one quote that almost made me spill my cup:
Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000 vowing to destroy Russia's oligarchs ``as a class.'' Within two years, he'd driven two into exile and imprisoned another.Now, he may use the global markets meltdown to finish the job. The $50 billion that the prime minister and President Dmitry Medvedev have pledged to lend cash-strapped companies will extend state control over business leaders. Billionaires seeking bailouts -- including Oleg Deripaska, Russia's richest man, and Mikhail Fridman -- will have to give authorities veto power over their companies' financing decisions. ``This will give the state more leverage over the country's biggest companies and main industries,'' said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib Financial Corp in Moscow. ``In 2008, there is only one real oligarch: the state.'' All this marks a reversal from a decade ago, when oligarchs bankrolled Boris Yeltsin's almost-insolvent government. As recently as April, Russia's 100 wealthiest citizens had a combined fortune equivalent to about a third of the economy, Forbes magazine estimated.
The $50 billion that the prime minister and President Dmitry Medvedev have pledged to lend cash-strapped companies will extend state control over business leaders. Billionaires seeking bailouts -- including Oleg Deripaska, Russia's richest man, and Mikhail Fridman -- will have to give authorities veto power over their companies' financing decisions.
``This will give the state more leverage over the country's biggest companies and main industries,'' said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib Financial Corp in Moscow. ``In 2008, there is only one real oligarch: the state.''
All this marks a reversal from a decade ago, when oligarchs bankrolled Boris Yeltsin's almost-insolvent government. As recently as April, Russia's 100 wealthiest citizens had a combined fortune equivalent to about a third of the economy, Forbes magazine estimated.
"Look at me, I'm quoting another user to show how wrong I think they are, out of arrogance of my own position. Wait, this is my own quote, oh shi-" ~ Nitroadict
Oleg Deripaska is already Putin's man. There is no opposition left for him to destroy.
The fallacies of intellectual communism, a compilation - On the nature of power
Stranger: Oleg Deripaska is already Putin's man. There is no opposition left for him to destroy.
Perhaps; I just found it oddly humorous that in such a comment, admitting the state (should be, in their view) the only oligarch, with such language, yet many common folk reading the article would probably not read more into it.
What Putin has done is, without a hint of irony, rebuild Russia on the fuhrerprinzip model: private property is encouraged at the will of the rulers, and if need be, at their disposal.