Posted on 03/22/2022 8:17:54 PM PDT by Conservat1
President responds to any criticism with reprisals, leaving business leaders with diminished influence.
Vladimir Putin gathered the country’s top businessmen in the Kremlin’s ornate Hall of the Order of St Catherine to discuss their response to the economic shocks that would follow. The Russian president, seated about 20ft away in a conspicuous social-distancing measure, told them he had “no other choice” but to invade Ukraine — and, if they wanted to keep their businesses, neither did they, according to people briefed on the meeting. “It was a pointless meeting. The main idea was to explain himself. The explanation was: ‘I get it, but I didn’t have any other way out.’ That’s really what he thinks,” one of them said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
Daniel Fried, a former U.S. official under both Democratic and Republican administrations who helped craft U.S. sanctions against Moscow in the wake of Putin's 2014 invasion of the Crimean Peninsula, said he was surprised Abramovich and Usmanov weren't on the sanctions list announced Thursday, given their long ties to Putin and visible assets in the West. But, Fried warned, sanctioning Russian oligarchs would likely have limited impact on persuading Putin to change course in Ukraine. "He owns them absolutely. He crushed them and they exist only by his sufferance," said Fried. "He can jail them, or kill them, and the notion that the oligarchs can assert influence over Putin is foolish." Still, he said the opinion of wealthy, educated elites carries some intangible weight that Putin defies at his own risk. While sanctions are unlikely to drive the oligarchs away from Putin, they do raise for them the cost of their continued support. "They can't stop or vote him out of office. But he's only in total control until he isn't," said Fried, who is now a fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council. https://www.npr.org/2022/02/26/1083276850/us-sanctions-on-russian-oligarchs-miss-richest-of-rich
__
Russian oligarchs don’t have the power — or inclination — to stop Putin
Business elites who pledged their loyalty to Putin have been allowed to keep their wealth (until now). But they have no political power.
By Anatol Lieven
March 4, 2022 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/04/russian-oligarchs-lack/
First, why should they side with the West which has just robbed them. Second, if they are powerless, why are you calling them “oligarchs”?
Is there anyone who can rein in the oligarchs who oppress America?
Soros is an oligarch. Zuckerberg is an oligarch. Dorsey is an oligarch. And so on
Because they control large parts of the economy through various state licenses and guarantees. Sort of like the old Russian nobility, except that its no longer about owning peasant villages.
Russian oligarch __ Ivan B. Hiden
American tycoon __ Wayne B. Donatin
Chinese billionaire __ Din Say Nutn
Just like in any other country.
‘There is literally no paper trail’: How Russia experts say Putin hides a fortune
Mar 18, 2022 — Burgis likened Putin to The Godfather and said it’s understood that when he asks an oligarch for something, it’s not really a request
Putin’s power over the oligarchs is why the Russian people support him.
Buden’s anti oligarchs campaign is just propaganda, everybody knows that Putin is THE / their chief.
Yes
Because the “west” can take away their assets that they hold in large part in the “west”. These characters have perpetrated most of the capital flight from Russia. And that, no doubt, is because of the insecurity of their positions and property in Russia. And now their assets in London and NY and Frankfurt are also at risk. Rock and a hard place.
He grants them power, and with it they rob Russia blind.
This system is in large part the reason why Russia lacks domestic investment.
Let’s get things straight. Oligarchy in Russia was installed by Clinton’s staffers during Yeltsin’s presidency, where some Americans and former Soviet apparatchiks appropriated all government property through fraudulent schemes. Then they registered all businesses in the British jurisdiction and didn’t pay a penny in taxes, and used to tell the government how to govern.
Putin forced them to bring the assets back and convert their empires into publicly traded companies, also excluded them from the political process.
That took place between 2000-2004. After doing so, he has become the bogeyman for globalists who want to revert it.
See post # 17.
“First, why should they side with the West which has just robbed them. Second, if they are powerless, why are you calling them “oligarchs”?”
The Free Republic “Rah Rah warfare” with Russia crowd are delusional.
If Putin goes, there are 8 Putin types waiting in the wings, plus a couple of semi Putin types seen as “reformers” by the West. The reformers will eventually morph into Putin.
Many naive Americans don’t understand the United States Establishment, asking them to understand the Russian Establishment is an exercise in futility.
Russia is going to stay awhile in Ukraine, regardless of the consequences. They have the time, geography, and determination to see through their foreign policy.
On the other hand, our ad hoc alliance with Ukraine isn’t going anywhere, it was foreign policy hubris & stupidity brought to us by a moronic State Department & a corrupt arrogant Washington DC.
That is outright brilliant, ... and subversive.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.