2022-04-14
1 小时 7 分钟The political scientist Yuen Yuen Ang argues that different forms of government create different styles of corruption. The U.S. and China have more in common than we’d like to admit — but Russia is a different story, which could explain its willingness to invade Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, thousands of people have been killed and millions have fled.
The US and some allies have levied sanctions on Russia and also put pressure on its oligarchs.
The roughly hundred Russians who helped set the country's economic and political agendas.
They are the individuals who amass enormous wealth in a short amount amount of time.
When Russia privatized, that's Yoon Yoon ang.
She is a political scientist who studies corruption.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, there was a sudden breakdown of political order.
So everything in post Soviet Russia was up for grabs.
Up for grabs meaning businesses and industries that had been state owned were now privatized.
The privatization program on paper was intended to give all Russians an opportunity to buy a stake in the post soviet economy.
In reality, what happened was that it was usurped by this very, very small group of people for private gain.
Especially lucrative were businesses in the energy sector.
In the 1990s, when Boris Yeltsin was president of Russia, the oligarchs essentially ran the country.
Yeltsin stepped down at the end of 1999.
I want to ask you for forgiveness, Yeltsin said in a televised address, because many of our hopes have not come true.
Yeltsin also announced his successor, Vladimir.
Vladimir Putin.
Now, when Putin came into the picture as a strong man, he was credited for and forcing a high level of control and order.
The oligarchs, in order to keep their wealth, had to demonstrate their loyalty to him.
And what happened in the process is that Russia went from a society of pure lawlessness and looting into a more conventional kleptocracy.