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https://freedium-mirror.cfd/https://medium.com/@elvirabary/russian-oligarchs-how-putin-turned-billionaires-into-war-hostages-fa31d0cd48a9>
"A Russian oligarch seems to have everything: private jets, enormous yachts,
villas in several countries, companies worth billions, and access to the
Kremlin.
From the outside, he looks powerful enough to influence presidents.
That is why many people in Russia and the West assumed that oligarchs were the
true rulers of the country-that Putin depended on them, that they could
restrain him, and that they might even force him to stop the war.
Western sanctions were built partly on that assumption. Freeze their accounts.
Seize their yachts and villas. Make the war so expensive for Russia's
billionaires that they pressure Putin to end it.
But the pressure never came.
The sanctions failed because the West misunderstood what a Russian oligarch
actually is.
In the West, great wealth can create independent power. In Putin's Russia,
wealth survives only as long as political power permits it. The billionaire may
own the company on paper, but the Kremlin controls the courts, prosecutors,
police, contracts, export licenses-and the armed men who can arrive at his door
before sunrise.
The oligarch is not Putin's master.
He is a very wealthy hostage.
Today, I'll show you how Russia's oligarchs acquired their fortunes, why they
briefly appeared powerful, how Putin turned them into obedient servants of the
state, and why Western sanctions ultimately left many of them even more
dependent on the Kremlin."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
