They sold people into servitude to the state.
They are oligarchs, not victims. In other countries, there would be hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, leaders in effigy, bricks and stones and old produce thrown, so they are getting off light.
They are trying to cast themselves as the vistims and the Goebbels media is playing the violin for them.
(thanks to salamander)
“They sold people into servitude to the state...”
That yet remains to be seen..King George III thought he’d get away with something similar amongst the peons and peasants in the colonies....