Originally Posted by
vertical_doug
You can't lump it all together into one simple narrative. It was a much more complex process which had multiple failues.
The privatisation was not an asset strip. It was a process of distributing 40 rubles worth of vouchers to 148mm Russians in 1992-1994. The problem was after generations of living under communism, most Russians did not understand the vouchers. They were sold for cheap to people who could gather them up and eventually use them to gain control of the best state assets.
The real asset grab came in 1995-1996, and this was devised by Vladimir Potanin who was a Russian banker. For loaning money to the government, the companies were able to gain shares and control of state companies- Lukoil, Yukos, Norilsk Nickel etc etc are very cheap prices and the bidding process was rigged. This was under Yeltsin and this was not applauded by Ameircan Bankers. There was a lot of corruption under Yeltsin at this time.
Putin is different from Yeltsin, but in many respects the same. He stripped the wealth from Oligarchs who didn't support him, and sold the assets cheap to other oligarchs who would. Essentially, this is what happened to Mikhail Khordorkofsky when he had Yukos stripped and he was sent to prison. It also happen to others, one of which had to sell his shares in Norilsk Nickel to V. Potanin. (Many of these Oligarchs are just survivors with no political loyalty outside of serving power to keep their wealth safe)
Roman Abramovich is another. There is testimony in a trial about how they promised to support Yeltsin in the election in exchange for being awarded a lowball bid in a state asset. later, Abramovich was able to maintain his wealth under Putin. How remains a mystery to me....
Former Persident Medvedev is one of the largest land owners in Russia now. How'd he do that on a politicians salary? And our good civil servant Lavrov, is also worth a billion dollars.
There are no saints in this story.
If you want to read a good book on some of this, read Bill Browder's Red Notice. It's a true story and pretty shocking.
(It was his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who was jailed and died of injuries in 2009. And the reason we have the Magnitsky Act)