Put simply, the term ‘Russian Oligarch’ is given to Russian businessmen who rapidly accrued vast wealth by purchasing Soviet assets, mostly in key industries, when the USSR dissolved and started selling off state-run factories and farms. The oligarchs were mostly middle-level communist officials, who already had some wealth and had good connections with one another. So when those Soviet assets went up for sale, practically for free and a favor, they were the ones who could guarantee that favor.
They dismantled the administrative support structure and then took over the essential production within that was where real wealth came from. Yes, many of them were and are stupefyingly corrupt, bribing and intimidating to amass their current fortunes. But the old Soviet production was large. Russia, even without the satellite countries, is very large. Most of the industries they were taking over were and are, by international standards, huge. Russia’s sheer size, and the amount of iron, plastic, oil, et cetera, that it produces to supply its large population, is the real basis of the Oligarch’s money.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário