After the Soviet Union fell, shares in state industries were given to all the Russian people. But the common folk were financially desperate and economically ignorant.
Whereupon, well-connected insiders, often with access to Western funds, bought up the shares from the common folk, for much less than they were worth.
Thus did the oligarchs financially rape the Russian people.
Well, that’s a good way of putting at people. The Russian people were already raped by their communist leaders. Sure, things might have shifted around that a little bit.