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ShapesInMist wrote (edited )

I think that's a cop out argument, and it was simple power dynamics at play - the powerful people at the top of USSR society were the precursors of modern Russia's oligarchs. And most of them come from the same families.

Modern russia became an oligarchy as a result of the 1990s and privatisation of every sphere of life in Russia. It was treated like a goldrush in the capitalist west.

This basically provided the grounds for oligarchs to buy up the entire economy.

Wealth inequality was much, much less in the Soviet Union compared to modern day Russia. After capitalist restoration was when inequality spiraled to the ridiculous state it is.

The richest slice of Russian society has doubled its wealth in the past 20 years, while almost two-thirds of the population is no better off and the poor are barely half as wealthy as they were when the Soviet Union fell, according to researchers.

Experts at Moscow's Higher School of Economics (HSE) found that the purchasing power of the average Russian has grown by 45% since the early 1990s, but income disparity is widening by the year.

The report reinforces a widely held view that oligarchs got rich quick by snapping up the country's choicest assets in the turbulent post-Soviet period.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/11/russia-rich-richer-poor-poorer

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BlackFlagged wrote

Modern russia became an oligarchy as a result of the 1990s and privatisation

It's hardly surprising that state capitalism would eventually morph into oligarchy.

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